Catlepuck Chapter3 Christie a robery in the museum

Chapter 3
Christie Dream with me
A Robbery at the Museum

Once upon a time there was a girl named Christie.  She was the splitting image of her mother at her age—her mother was Mary Crow, the international supermodel.  She had the same beauty bone structure, the same reddish brown hair, the same green eyes.  But their personalities were completely different.

Her mother was a wealthy rich, sophisticated, elegant, fine housewife, absolutely suffocating and charming. She was dedicated to her goal that Christie would be a socialite, her protégé. She didn't allow her to do anything fun—nothing not related to macramé or girly things, things for which she had neither the talent for nor interest in—things that required too much patience.  

Christie was a fun 14 year-old girl, very lively, immature full of energy and big hearted.  She always had a pair of sun glasses hung around the neck or worn like a tiara on her head.  She wore star-shaped earrings.  She was very popular in school, the captain of the football team.  She was a good leader, everyone respected her and followed her without complaint because anyone who tried to give her trouble would end up in the school nursing.  She had a mean character although she could be sweet.  She didn't like too much being friends with other girls because they never did anything interesting—she just laughed like idiots.

Another reason she was so popular was that her father worked in the entertainment business, always filming commercials and sometimes movies for small companies.  She had even played some small parts which made her classmates notice.

She enjoyed life and interesting things but didn't really have anyone to share her interests and dreams with.  Her teammates only wanted to play video games for hours.  The couldn't have a deep conversation.

She wished she had friends like on TV that had personalities that were completely different but complementary to hers.  She'd like to have adventures with them.  But as hard as she tried, nobody seemed to be interested in such things and she always ended up laughing with them but sitting by herself.  But she wouldn't give up her dream—everybody in the world had a path to follow in order to be happy and this is the path she had chosen, the most difficult to follow.

This Friday afternoon Christie had been hiding in their house so she could put on her skates and be able to enjoy the day.  But if her mother found her she'd surely make her go to have coffee at the sports club or fuss at her for not wearing an outfit she'd bought her.  

She had successfully slipped very discreetly around the house and none of her mother's friends had noticed her.  Everything was going perfectly until she turned the doorknob to open the door and someone saw her.

It was her mother, staring at her with a forced, shivering smile.  

"Christie, my love, you haven't worn the new dress that I bought for you a month ago,"  said Mary, wearing a short, purple dress herself.

"Oh, that.  It's just that it's so pretty I'm waiting for a special occasion," said Christie, as she continued opening the door.

"Oh, yes?  Like what?" said Mary, closing the door, frowning .

"If I'm invited to a costume party one day, all the good outfits will be rented and I'd want to dress up like a go-go dancer.  OK, bye,  Mary.   I don't want to arrive late to the  Parque Profundo—it's gets so crowded—have a groovy day," said Christie, quickly escaping.

"At least try it on once," said Mary, trying to convince her daughter.

"I'll keep it in mind," responded Christie, running happily to the park without knowing that her life was about to change.

Alexander and Kyle finished their history assignment from the comfort and safety of the Internet.  Neither of the two had been tempted to return to Parque Profundo after the clown attack. At last, Alexander had finished his first week of classes. It had been difficult, terrifying, and strange.  But at least it had been the most exciting and fun time he'd ever had in his life.  Kyle was almost tolerable, the school wasn't so bad, and he'd started to like the little town of ugly death in the middle of nowhere.

It was Friday afternoon, classes were finished early for the Guacamaya Albina Day.  Alexander had waited for Kyle for a little while on the corner.  He needed to do some things at home, but he'd do them later because today a new piece would arrive at the Gizel museum.  A grand dinner and gala inauguration event was planned.  More or less important people from around the Mistery Nation were invited. Alexander and Kyle would visit the museum early without Gizel because she wouldn't wake up until 4 in the afternoon. She was a night owl. But they wanted to take advantage of the day.  Gizel had given him 5 tickets but he'd only invited Kyle because he didn't know anyone else that he liked.  Still, Kyle had kept him waiting too long.

"Where could Kyle be?"  Alexander was sick of waiting.  

Kyle ran as fast as he could to get to Alexander.  He'd been held up because after his normal activities were finished (cleaning, fixing lunch, washing clothes, waxing floors, washing the car, sweeping the entrance…) his father had sent him to get ice (for the beer) and buy crackling and other things to watch the game with his friends. Kyle was just about to arrive when he tripped on something and fell to the floor.

It was actually a boy. Grown was a boy of unknown age.  He looked about twenty-something.  But a short time earlier he'd studied in his school, until he was expelled for sending a teacher to the hospital everyone thought they'd been saved from him, that he'd been sent to a correctional center or a nice military school very far away from innocent people like Kyle.

"I'm…I'm sorry, Grown.  I didn't see you," Kyle excused himself, terrified, as Grown held on to his shirt and pulled him up.  

"You know?  Beating me up does you no good.  Violence just makes more violence.  Plus, getting so mad is bad for the liver.  How about we just count to 10 or have a little cup of tea?  To calm your nerves—I'm buying," said Kyle, smiling, but Grown's mad face didn't change, not even a little bit.

"OK, just not in the face, which my career depends on," said Kyle, resigned.  

"Hey, leave him alone, grease bag!" screamed a girl Kyle's age.  She had reddish brown hair, green eyes, blue jeans, and a purple t-shirt.  She had a pretty face, just as pretty as the model that lived around the corner.

"And?  What are you going to do about it?  Tell a teacher? Everybody knows that I don't go to school any more," Grown laughed, both stupidly and psychopathically.  

"OK, this is scary," said Kyle.  

"I should beat you up for calling me a grease bag, but I don't fight with girls.  So instead, I'll beat up your friend twice," Grown laughed harder.

"Wait!  That doesn't sound right," replied Kyle, pensively.  

"I don't think so," said the redheaded girl, giving him a punch to the face and causing him to fall away from Kyle.  The hit was so hard that his lip and nose were bleeding.

"You'll pay for that!!" Grown was burning with anger.

Grown intended to hit her, but she defended herself and delivered various hard punches, one in the stomach, another in the face, and she kicked him in the shins.  Kyle almost felt sorry for Grown.  OK, not really.

"You're going to pay, slimy idiot," threatened Grown and he ran away.

"Whenever you want!" yelled the redheaded girl, victorious.  

"Thank you very much!  That had to hurt, and a lot," Kyle hugged the redheaded girl.

"Don't worry.  For a while now I've wanted to hit him—he made the guy who used to help me in math change schools.  Oh, by the way, I'm Christie," the girl took his hand.

"And I'm…" the girl didn't let him finish.  "You must be the famous Kyle from group 31 that all the girls always talk about," Christie jokingly punched him in the shoulder.  

"And you?  What group are you in?  I've never seen you".

"It's because I'm in group 34—the classroom is a long way from yours and we don't share any extracurricular courses with you guys.  Hey, why are you in such a hurry?" asked Christie with curiosity.

"Oh!  You're right, I'm running really late, but I guess Alexander will understand," responded Kyle, calming down.
"No!!!  I don't understand!!  I've been here waiting for you for two hours," exclaimed Alexander furiously, giving Kyle a hard time after he and Christie showed up.

"You're both cool," commented Christie, smiling.

"I like your clothes.  Are you a member of some kind of urban tribe?" asked Christine, examining with curiosity the backpack with the devil face, his shirt, his jacket, everything that he wore.

"No, I just like black," responded Alexander feeling invaded.

"Wow, how original!  Hey guys, could I go with you to the museum?" asked Christie, smiling.  Since seeing Kyle in the hands of Grown, a strange sensation had invaded her body.  She didn't know why, but she felt like she knew these boys.  It would not be a bad idea to investigate them a little.  And they were…..funny.

"Well…" Alexander was still thinking, not approving of the idea.

"It would be fun!" said Kyle, with excitement.

The Mistery Rock Museum of Arts, Sciences, and General History was an antique structure—maybe 150 years old.  It looked like a castle.  It was an old burgundy-colored building surrounded by gardens that connected it to the Mystery Rock movie theater.

"Couldn't they have thought up a longer name?" asked Alex sarcastically, looking at the plaque with the museum's name on it.

"Well, this way you know what it is," commented Christie, having fun.

They passed right through the crystal doors of the museum since nobody had been in the ticket booth.  Maybe all the employees were too busy with preparations for the event.

The roof of the museum was so tall that it made you feel small.  Plus, they'd failed to pay the power and maintenance bills so the place looked like an abandoned castle.  There were many show-windows and several display cases with various collectables, which the kids went close to observe.  The first thing they saw on display were some fabulous metallic blue meteorites.  Then they saw some gears and other mechanical parts of the original power plant of Dirall City.  There were fossils and insects and more cool, crazy things.  Later, they entered the ice salon which housed frozen creatures.  They saw orangutans that were blue and nine feet tall, a saber-toothed snake, and, in the center of the salon, a giant purple shark with four eyes; Christie imagined the terror you'd feel if you ran into that in the water, but she never imagined that not all of the terrorizing, enormous creatures in this museum were yet extinct.

"Hey, guys, there they are!"  Grown entered, accompanied by three boys of equally monstrous size, which Christie thought was really cowardly—especially since they were all apes.

"I told you you'd pay," Grown ran toward them.

"Now what?" asked Kyle, terrorized.

"Look, I can handle two of them, if each of you can fight against one we'll win," responded Christie confidently.

"Oh, sure.  In fact, why don't we just take them on blindfolded?" said Alexander, looking at her.

So the three fled.  They ran all around the museum trying to find another exit, or a security guard or something that could save them from Grown and his military unit of trolls, but they couldn't find anything; Grown and his guys removed the swords and shields from some medieval armories and it was obvious that the didn't want them for their historic value.  They had run through nearly all the halls of the enormous museum when they found themselves trapped in a small area with no escape.

"Looks like there's no where else to run, so your game is over" said Grown holding a medieval club in the air, signaling victory.

The three glued themselves as tightly to the wall as they could to buy time—she tried to think of a plan, but everything seemed lost when Kyle accidentally activated a mechanism with his elbow and the whole wall turned.  Grown and the rest had disappeared and Alexander, Kyle, and Christie went flying down a slide made of rocks that led them to a dark corridor.

"Well, that was weird, but perfect timing," said Christie, satisfied.  She didn't know why but all her life she'd been saved by a hair from whatever situation, which was really quite interesting.

"Whoever poked their elbow in by ribs, it would be best if you remove your arm if you don't want me to skin it alive," threatened Alexander, irritated.

"Sorry," Kyle excused himself and stood up.

"Where are we?" asked Christie, shining light around with her Bi Yei Do—everywhere was dark, very humid, full of spiders.

"These must be some underground tunnels—many old places have them," explained Alexander, getting up.

"Well, in that case, there must be another exit at the end of the tunnel, and, anyway, we're too deep to go back up, and even if we could, I don't want to be beaten up by Grown—we're on his "to do list," said Kyle, smiling.

"Good point," agreed Alex and Christie.

They walked for a while, lost in the darkness, only able to see by the light of their Bi Yei Do's.  They discovered that it was not only one tunnel, but hundreds of tunnels connected and forming an elaborate underground labyrinth.  Even though they tired to go straight and avoid confusion, the same path forced them to deviate more than once.

"How long have we been down here?" asked Christie, bored.

"I don't know—1 hour, 2, 5, 10…but, definitely, longer than we should!" responded Alexander, fed up.

"I'm starving.  I didn't want to eat anything, thinking Alexander would invite me to have something in the museum cafeteria," said Kyle.

"Hey, if that's what you were counting on you wouldn't have eaten anyway," said Alexander, laughing.

"Hey!" answered Kyle, offended.

Two minutes after they'd tried to find an exit they entered a really big cave.  They walked to the middle of it and encountered someone ahead of them, illuminating them with a lantern.

"Well, well, well.  Three sweet little children, lost in the forest," said the voice of a man, although it was hard to distinguish his face with the light of the lantern in their eyes.

"But what mischievous kids!  Don't you know that in the forest there are many wolves," another man appeared behind the first, making fun of them.

"Every day, many people get lost in the forest and nobody ever hears from them again," added the third man, turning toward the left and giggling loudly.

"Maybe, at least sometime, boys…" Kyle started to say, standing in front of Christie to protect her.

"…are much more dangerous than wolves," Alexander finished the line for Kyle, putting himself on guard.

What Christie didn't know is that the two of them, after the attack in the park, had been practicing all week to see if they could repeat the magic that had saved their lives, and to their surprise, they discovered that if they concentrated enough they could.  Alexander could throw black and purple fire balls from his hands and he could do something odd with shadows which he hadn't quite dominated;  Kyle could throw electric shock waves (he'd even knocked out Alexander by accident) and could create gushes of air.  They'd trained hard, doing lots of exercises in case  their lives again turned dangerous.

Kyle smiled at Christie, "Don't worry, you saved me before and now it's my turn to pay you back the favor.  I won't let anyone touch you."

"Oh, how sweet!  But, there's something I have to tell you…" Christie tried to explain, but nobody listened.

"Wait, not now," Alexander tried to concentrate.

The cave became brightly illuminated in the moment that both activated their powers, allowing them to see that the place was full of other men like the first two.

"But, it's important," Christie raised her voice, a little mad.

"Hmm…There's a lot more of them than I imagined," Kyle was surprised.

"We don't even want to know how many there are.  OK, this is going to hurt them much more than it hurts me," said Alexander, throwing blaze of black fire.

Various men tried to attack Christie, but Kyle knocked them out with his rays.

"Thanks a lot, but…" Christie needed to tell them something important, but her two friends were too busy to pay her attention.

"OK, I've had it, too bad," Christie put her feet firmly on the ground and stretched out her arms, and as she did so, the rocks and dirt around her left the ground and the walls, came together, and formed and enormous fist that was 5 meters tall.

Christie went running, and, with her fist, hit every man she found in the cave.  She trapped them, making a big dough of people and dirt.

Kyle and Alexander stood staring at her with their mouths open.

"Oh!  Aren't you sweet?  Did you think you were the only ones with powers?" said Christie, having fun.

One man that wasn't knocked out tried to escape.

"Oh, hey, there's one left!  Excuse me, my mistake," Christie made the dirt ball move again.

"OHHH!!!!" screamed the man until, finally, the ball leveled him.

"But how?  How long have you had your powers?" asked Kyle, confused.

"Two weeks ago a street artist, or really, someone trying to be a clown tried to kidnap me.  I plastered him with a rock, but I think he was still alive when I left him."

"That was a monster.  You know?  We almost didn't make it," said Alexander, irritated.

"Yeah, that's right…anyway it was weak, you just needed to train more," replied Christie, animated.

"Crazy," Alexander was even more irritated.

"Who do you think they were?" asked Kyle, lifting a piece of burned cloth with a strange logo on it.

"I don't know, but we don't need to hang around much longer. Some day they'll wake up want to cut us up into little pieces," responded Alexander pensively.  

"Look!  Stairs," Kyle pointed to a corner of the cave with some stairs made of solid stone.  The three climbed them but they didn't lead to anywhere.  

"Cool!  Now what?" asked Alexander, noticing that the exit had been blocked.

"Wait a second—there's a little light filtering through," Kyle was carefully observing the ceiling.  "Maybe if the three of us try with all our might…"

"I already raised it!" said Christie, animated as always.  "Don't feel bad.  I don't just throw dirt around, I'm also very strong," added Christie, smiling.

"And you're very humble," mentioned Alexander.

The three exited the caverns and entered the west wing of the museum.  It was night now and all of the lights were off, but the soft light of the moon through all the windows give the place a ghostly touch.

"OK, we have to go to the party.  Food for the rich and powerful is waiting for me," Kyle marched ahead happily.

Alexander and Christie followed behind him.

"And tell me, why do you have tickets to this?" asked Christie to start conversation.

"Oh, well, my aunt is the owner of the museum and Kyle…just invited himself," responded Alexander, looking at him with anger.

"Are you kin to her?  But she is the…"

"Shhhh!  Look, there's somebody here," whispered Kyle, quieting them.

A figure moved quickly through the darkness.  When it passed near one of the windows, they saw that it was a girl with short black hair—she wore some kind of red coat, but that's all they could distinguish in the shadows.  The girl didn't seem to notice them.  She was very concentrated, looking for something.  She stopped in front of some kind of  barrette in a glass case—she examined it—broke the glass that protected it, and took it.

Crash!  Kyle had dropped a vase as he was taking steps backwards.  "I'm sorry," he excused himself, embarrassed.

"You're an idiot!" said Alexander, furious.

The girl, who had obviously been listening to them, walked closer—she seemed really threatening, so much so that the three started running away, but the girl appeared on the other side and said, "I'm sorry, but no witnesses."

Now they could see her with detail.  She was a girl about their age—they could imagine her with the rest of the girls from school in the cafeteria.  But instead of smiling like a silly girl, she had a dark, inexpressive face.  All of her body, except her hands and feet, were covered with some sort of black Lycra. It had the same logo of the men they found in the caves.  She wore white gloves and boots; her blue eyes glowed in the dark.

Christie knew that she should be afraid, but really she was more excited.  Everything that had happened that day was the most exciting that she'd ever experienced.

The girl made a sad face and all of her fingers grew until they were 5 times their original size.  They looked like knives, reminding them of the claws the clown in the park had had.

"Don't try to get away, it will just make it more difficult for everyone and won't do you any good," said the girl, with absolutely no expression.

"Why in the devil didn't I stay in the boarding school?!"  This town is full of crazy things!" exclaimed Alexander.

Christie rapidly destroyed the floor to make herself two marble gloves.  That was one of the inconveniences of her powers—she always ended up destroying the place where she fought, either through her force or by moving rocks.  She ran toward the girl and punched her with all her might.  She went flying and smashed into a window—but it wasn't over yet because a moment later she got up.  But that wasn't all---now the girl had orange hair, worn blue jeans—the imposter had copied Christie's appearance to the smallest detail—it was like looking at herself in the mirror except she had a very sinister look about her.

"Is that me?" Christie asked, more than surprised, she was stunned.

"Is that me?" the other Christie imitated her.

The other Christie made two gloves from the marble on the floor and hit her in the same way she had moments ago but with much more force and precision.  She couldn't understand how she had become a better Christie than herself.  She fell across the door, breaking it, and remained unconscious.  

"Christie!" yelled Kyle, running toward the spot where she had fallen unconscious.

"Sorry, but I warned you that you'd only make it more difficult," the girl changed back to her original form and went toward  defeated Christie with sharpened hands.

"Don't go near her!" Kyle and Alexander put themselves in front of her, threatening the girl.

Alexander threw a flame of purple fire with all his might, while Kyle helped Christie up.

When Alexander stopped throwing flames, the girl was no longer there. Alexander looked toward the right and discovered that the girl had transformed herself into him.

The other Alexander jumped and gave him a kick in the face; then he looked at him on the floor with an expression much colder than the original's.  His mouth was bleeding, his chin was really swollen.  He was in intense pain.

"You weren't even half the challenge of the girl," the other Alexander smiled maliciously.

"I know, but you're not so great yourself," Alexander threw a flame at the smoke detector located on the roof, making all the water sprinklers activate.  "Kyle, give it to him!" he screamed.

Kyle threw a ray without letting go of Christie.  The fake Alexander convulsed and started to change his form.  He turned into Kyle, then into Christie, a museum guard, a fat woman, and, finally, she became herself again, falling to the ground losing the barrette.

"That was close, thanks guys," said Christie, waking up—her ribs hurt a bit although more than anything, her pride was hurt.

"We already owe you so much," Kyle smiled.

"Look!" Alexander pointed to the inside of the room.  There they saw gagged, bound, and unconscious all of the employees of the museum (approximately 20 people).  They untied them--it seemed that they had been given some type of anesthesia to keep them from fighting back.

They decided that Christie and Alexander would go and look for help while Kyle would stay and help the employees.  Leaving the room they saw that the girl that changed her form was no longer around, which scared them more than if she had been there.  They noticed the barrette and somebody had removed part of it.  On the way out they ran into Gizel and talked to her while they could, before the remaining museum security guards trapped them.  Hearing their story, the security guards were worried about the employees and called emergency services.  After a short while, all of the  museum employees were taken to the Phantom Hospital.

Christie, Kyle, and Alexander were given treatment for their scratches, their faces cleaned with cotton.  Everyone seemed to be in good shape.  They had not been able to stop the girl from robbing the jewel from the barrette.  Grown and his friends had kept the weapons that were on display.  Still, everyone thought they were heroes.  They were congratulated, asked questions, their pictures were taken.

The news about the arrival of the new piece was replaced with news about the robbery of the museum.  Medieval arms had disappeared and a barrette that was on loan from eastern countries was missing a piece.  But the 3 friends remained heroes for rescuing the hostages and preventing further robbery of important things.  All of the reporters attacked the kids repeatedly asking the same questions:  What had happened?  How had it happened?  Who did they think were involved?  "Hey, guys.  Any clues about who might be the museum thief?" asked a reporter as he took their photograph.

The 3 kids exchanged a look of complicity before responding.

Grown was with his friends in the patio of his house smashing pumpkins with a club when the police interrupted and accused them of participating in the museum robbery.

"That's a lie!" said Grown as he threw one of the medieval weapons into the garbage.  Everyone stood silently looking at the weapon.

"Take them all in," said one of the police.

"That was very cruel, Alex.  It wasn't all their fault," Christie reproached in a condemning voice.  After it was all over, the three were enjoying the party.

"Hey!  Those guys were absolute psychopaths.  Without them, everybody in town could rest in peace," responded Alexander, smiling both evilly and comically.

"Uh, why did your aunt call you Anthony?" asked Christie, confused.

"No idea—maybe with the panic she was a little confused," responded Alexander, evading the theme.  She'd accepted that answer for the moment tough she had the feeling that Alexander was hiding something.

"That's not important.  Maybe we missed the dinner, but there is still some dessert," said Kyle, excited, grabbing cutlery from a table.  A waiter arrived with an enormous silver tray carrying a metal bell.

"Sir, I have the pleasure to serve you the chef's specialty:  'frutishé cuadré flambeé'," explained the waiter as he lifted the bell.  Kyle was excited to see the enormous plate.

But after looking at the plate, Kyle was more than a little disappointed.  The dessert was a little 5 centimeters square of meringue with a thin gelatin center.  The rest was just drawings made from liquid chocolate.

"The rich are anorexic," complained Kyle, upset, while Alexander and Christie laughed.

Christie was happy because at that moment she felt like they'd shared adventure, mystery, and more than anything, they were all good friends.

Far away from there was the girl who changed her form with the whole army that she'd met in the caves of the enormous labyrinth under the museum.  They were in a very luxurious military vehicle.  

"I'm sorry, professor, I failed.  All of the witnesses escaped and I didn't recover all of the barrette, " she excused herself, sadly looking at a very old man who had perverse eyes.

"Don't you worry Experiment DM1, you uncovered something much more interesting," responded the old man watching the video recorded of the 3 kids using their powers.