Chapter 9
"Bloody Hell!" the black lady exclaims in a high shrill voice, not moving from where she is standing. Copper's lab coat is still hanging upon her head, covering her entire face. "What is this? Beulah! Put this thing off me! Now!"
"Mom!" someone calls out from outside the front porch. Moments later, a morena girl wearing a white baseball cap, a black denim pants, a red blouse and a black scarf loosely tied around her neck, comes dashing by the door. The girl gasps, hand covering her mouth and eyes wide open as she stares at her mother. She then gingerly reaches for the coat.
A boy with fair skin wearing a green polo shirt and a cardigan short appears from behind the girl. The boy's nostrils are flaring as he laborously climbs his way up the front porch. His belly and legs wiggle like white plastic bags full of hot water. His long dark hair is donned in dreadlocks and meticulously decorated with tiny beads of colorful pearls and shiny stones.
A small baboon with snow-white fur yaps over the fat boy's shoulder, wearing a customized red jacket with blue letterings printed behind that reads BUBBLES in italic bold font. The monkey also wears a mini fedora hat and a checkered bowtie.
The brothers shift their gaze at the boy.
The fat boy catches them staring at him. A flush creeps up his fleshy cheeks and his eyes narrow. Flubby hands ball into fists.
"What are you looking at? Got any problem, uglies?" The fat boy glares at the brothers, hands clenching ang unclenching, teeth gritting. Even the monkey has this murderous stare fixed upon the boys, its mouth wide open, showing sets of sharp teeth, seemingly ready to pounce on them the moment its fat master tells it to do so.
"Lay it chill, Eddie!" The girl gently taps the boy on the shoulder. She then throws her gaze at the Catacutan brothers, and the looks of sheer amazement and dumbfounded confusion cross her face, momentarily amused by the fact that either she is witnessing an optical illusion conjured by some kind of magical mirrors from some cheap trick or she is actually seeing quintuplets that really look amazingly alike. Her mouth slightly goes ajar, but then quickly snaps it shut and straightens her face. She shifts her gaze back at his older brother and nods. "Let me handle this."
The fat boy nods back curtly, eyes still fixed contemptiously upon the five boys, sizing them up.
The black lady touches the black scarf loosely tied around her neck with her jewelry-studded delicate fingers. The woman's face is pale, her hair black with startling white streaks. It flows back and up from her forehead as if blown by a gale-force wind. She has a very pointy nose, and stubborn cheekbones and chin. She slightly resembles Elsa Lanchester known as the Bride of Frankenstein in horror films. The woman has these sharp, dark, and calculating eyes that can send uneasiness and fear to someone she is staring at.
"Whose coat is this?" The girl holds out her hand grasping the coat. She smiles at the boys, looking at them one by one. "May I know, please?"
Hawk, Tesla, Newton, Copper, and Leo exchange glances.
There is a moment of awkward silence. The blistering gust of wind rustles the branches of trees and shrubs beyond and behind the walls. Crumpled dry leaves creep on the pavements. And then...the sound of wheels as the great guardians of the Catacutan Mansion, the Crimson droids, with their own intelligent way of how to deal with a situation like this, approach them, taser and stun gun drawn from their robust bodies.
"What happened? Cat got your tongue?" The girl observes with a hint of a sneer in her tone. Her smile lessens into a cynical grin.
Copper slowly raises his hand. He is staring at the girl, his eyes huge behind the spectacle he wears. He feels a strange mixture of happiness and dismay deep inside when the girl looks his way, her eyes boring at his. The girl gives him a sweet little smile that he will soon learn to never trust so easily, but right now, oh how Copper smiles back! That is the kind of smile that must be reciprocated, Copper may have reasoned out, anyway. Especially if it is being given by that gorgeous morena girl in a baseball cap.
God, she's so pretty, Copper muses, his Adam's apple bobbing. He can almost hear the loud beatings of his heart as he watches the girl approaching him with his coat tucked in her one delicate hand. It is as if everything had slowed down. Everything is in slowmo. Everything is focused on her. He can hear the soft squeaking sound of the girl's green rubber shoes as it touch the maple flooring. He can see the dimple on her left cheek, strands of her long, curly hair dancing in the gust of cold western wind. She also has a pair of eyes as green as emeralds. And-
Her lips! Just like Julia Roberts' lips! The girl has a red full lips that can surely lure someone bad.
And Copper is one of that someone.
The girl stops in front of him.
"Hi, cute. Is this yours?" she asks with a saccharine smile, eyes glinting with eagerness and interest as she surveys Copper's face which is pitifully infested with deep craters and craggy volcanoes, some of which are dormant but most of them active and ready to erupt. The girl stifles a laugh.
"Oh, hello." Copper's face turns crimson. He smiles hesitantly at her and then drops his gaze upon the coat. "Yes, that's mine. I- "
The girl wraps the coat around Copper's neck...and squeezes!
"You annoying boy!"
Copper darts his hands upward, shaking fingers prying the fabric away from his already stiffening neck. His face starts to turn as red as tomato, watering eyes bulging from their sockets. He is trying to scream for help but only manages to let out a series of pitiful whimp and groan instead.
Copper's headset falls on the floor. The girl sees the device and deliberately steps on it, shattering it to pieces.
"Stop! You're choking him!" Tesla lunges forward, grabs the girl on both shoulders, and tries to yank her away from Copper. "Stop it this instance!"
"Never!" The girl nudges Tesla's hands off her shoulder. She then bites her lower lip and starts gripping the coat tighter and tighter, giggling as she does.
The monkey jumps up and down over Eddie's shoulder, clapping its hands as it watches the predicament. Eddie, on the other hand, is simply just standing still, watching, with his hands inside his pockets, smirking.
The Crimson droids draw their stun gun, storm their way inside the front door, and aim at Beulah.
The black lady shouts.
"All is jake, robots! All is jake!"
The Crimson droids stop abruptly, jitter momentarily, and then just stand still, seemingly paralyzed. Their stun guns slowly re-holster into their metallic body with a click.
"W-What?" Hawk gasps, deeply flabbergasted. He watches in awe as the Crimson droids systematically wheel their way outside the front door, seemingly satisfy and already oblivious to the on-going fuss.
"Dad! Come here quickly!" Newton screams vehemently at the top of his lungs, deeply alarmed by the fact that one of his brothers are being assaulted by some stranger. He glances over his shoulder at the stairways leading to their dad's Magic laboratory, his eyes almost welling up. "Dad! Help! Please!"
"Stop it this instance! You're destroying Copper's coat, you crazy girl!" Tesla lifts his hand, intent on grabbing the girl's hair and pulling it downward.
The girl senses rather than sees what Tesla is up to. Before Tesla can even lay a fingertip on her hair, she mightily stomps the sole of her shoe down Tesla's bare foot with a very satisfied grunt.
"Oh, God! Ahhh!" Tesla sinks on his knee and grabs his throbbing foot with his shaking hands.
"Beulah, please, stop!" Hawk shouts in a firm but gentle tone of voice which is way too sane and nice to be mistaken as a harsh command. "Release him!"
The girl loosens her grip of Copper and hastily jumps backward before Copper can even grasp the idea of reaching for her neck in exact revenge.
"Okay. Fine. I let your baby brother go. See?" she hisses at Hawk, palms up, slowly walking her way back to the black lady and the fat boy. "Crybabies."
"Nice one, Billy!" Eddie praises raising a splayed hand to his sister.
Beulah clenches her fist and bumps it ever gently against Eddie's sweaty palm.
The monkey let out a series of yelping and yapping over Eddie's shoulder, its mouth opening and closing in a caricature of yawn, wee hands clapping and swinging in the air.
"Y-You crazy girl," Copper snarls in a cracked voice, touching and probing his neck with his shaky hands. He glowers at Beulah. "Why did you choke me?"
"Because I can?" Beulah snarls back, arching an eyebrow and crossing her arms. "Serves you right, yes?"
"Kids? What hap-?"
All heads turn to Professor Ayn standing on the last flight of the staircase. He is wearing a dirty white lab coat and a big goggle pushed back up his forehead. Black substances, suspiciously charcoals, smudge his bulbous nose and cheeks. His hair, mustache, and beard are birdnests ransacked by some unknown predator.
Ayn's face lightens up when he sees the black lady. A smile forms on his lips.
"Zelda!" The professor walks briskly towards her. "Zelda, you're here. Finally!"
"Good Gracious, Ayn! What happened to your face?" the black lady asks, apparently disturbed by his appearance. "You look like a Holocaust survivor."
"I was doing something in my laboratory. You know, tinkering stuff, as usual." Ayn beams. "By the way, I forgot that you are moving in today. I was so absorbed in what I am doing. I'm truly sorry, Zelda."
Hawk, Tesla, Newton, Copper, and Leo glance at each other the instance they hear the words moving in.
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