Times were troubling in the Green Meadow... Catchum Crocodile had sunk to a
new low. He actually captured one of the members of the Get Along Gang,
Portia Porcupine, and stashed her away somewhere. He sent a ransom demand to
the gang... Portia for their caboose. Straight exchange. The gang didn't
quite know what to do, aside from just agree. They consulted with the police
over this, trying to figure out all their options. And it was at that point
that they were overheard by a certain yellow dino just out looking for some
fresh fruit.
Noone even knew this yellow dino even existed around these parts, for he was
just in this area from his home on an exploration trip. He listened in on
the gang's conversation, and understood the situation. Now, he wanted to
help, but he knew full well that exposing himself to the gang probably wasn't
the best idea at the moment. What to do...
And then he remembered. As a joke, Baby Bop had packed along his Captain
Pickles costume. It may have been a joke, but it now provided him the
perfect way of helping anonymously. And seeing that this was in a swamp, the
scuba gear he packed would be invaluable. Why he packed scuba gear for this
initially, BJ wasn't quite sure. While anyone present would've laughed at
how this costume was supposed to maintain his anonymity, BJ didn't seem to
care. Within a couple of minutes, he was Captain Pickles.... scuba mode.
Now... how to find where the captive was...
Fortunately for him, the swamp wasn't hard to locate. He didn't question why
the little hotel he was in had a town map plastered up in the hallway. He was
on his way and that's all that really mattered.
Unfortunely, he now had to try to find the captured damsel in all this... how
was he going to do it. Then, as if on cue, Catchum's rat henchmen, a pair of
them, walked by BJ's hiding place. "Did you put the girl away safely?
Catchum's banking the whole cheese on this." "Yeah, close to the center of
the swamp, in an underwater cave. noone will ever look for her there." Just
the break he was looking for. He charged out and caught one of the rats off
guard and alone, knocking him out and stealing the scuba gear to bring for
the young girl. Then, as quickly and quietly as possible, he made his way to
the water where he could dive to this cave. Now, he didn't know the exact
location of this cave, just in the 'center of the swamp' area the rats
mentioned. Now, he had another problem. He wasn't exactly accustomed to
swamp diving. This was different from swimming in normal water. It felt
thicker, and only BJ's physical fitness allowed him to maintain any kind of
physical readiness. It was also a lot murkier, meaning he wouldn't find the
cave until he was almost on top of it. Which, fortunately for him didn't
take all that long. What he wasn't expecting, however, was for Catchum to be
standing guard in the (marginally) clearer water of just inside the cave.
Catchum really wasn't taking any chances here. He was fully expecting some
kind of rescue mission from the Gang, but he definitely wasn't expecting this
kind of opponent. "Those twerps must've sent this... costumed freak..."
thought Catchum. BJ began his approach. Catchum tried to charge him, taking
the fight to...whatever this kid was supposed to be. But that slight moment
of distraction let BJ score with a punch to the gut that actually hurt. OK,
Catchum was surprised... he was actually afraid he'd lose a straight fight
with this guy, even here. But, then again, fair fighting was never Catchum's
forte to begin with, as he demonstrated with a low blow on BJ. BJ's eyes
watered from the cheap shot, but he still managed to push the crocodile away
to create some space. Not before Catchum's claws caught him in his cheek
though, drawing blood. BJ coudln't even remember the last time he bled. He
was never one to have a lot of playground accidents... and most of his fights
were just play fights with his cousin Riff. So the sight of this made BJ
realize the extent of what he was getting into here. Catchum mocked him,
flicking the blood off his claws slowly so that it hung suspended in the dark
water they fought in. BJ was almost mesmerized by the sight of his blood
just floating there, but it was all a trap to lure Catchum in, and it worked.
Catchum went for the lunge with his deadly jaws, but BJ was waiting on this.
He dodged the lunge and grabbed the head, and went down on the floor. He was
trying to wrap his arm around his neck, but Catchum wasn't making that very
easy, with his struggling. BJ wrapped himself around Catchum's back as best
he could, but Catchum started to go into a death roll. Normally such a
maneuver was a finisher, snapping his opponent's neck like a twig. But here
he was just trying to get this kid off him!
And after several attempts, he did, but he couldn't follow up, he was so
tired. All Catchum could really do was try to recover his breath, at least,
before his opponent could recover and resume his offensive. BJ was dizzy.
Well, it was either that or the cave was spinning. He pushed off the cave
wall at the center of the 5 or 6 Catchums he was seeing, hoping he might be
able to hit one of them. Catchum was so surprised by this that he wasn't
able to move the inch to his left he would've needed to make BJ completely
miss, but got clipped instead. As BJ stopped on the other side, he shook off
the cobwebs, and Catchum recovered at the same time. The result was a
standoff.
BJ faked a lunge to which Catchum reacted, wincing as he held the side where
BJ winged him. Smiling, the dino hurtled himself at that side, landing a
double-fist hammer blow to the injured area. Catchum tried to swing back,
but the pain in his ribs was too much, and the blow was no more than a love
tap. BJ grabbed Catchum in a crippling bearhug, focusing on the injured
ribs. For Catchum, this looked worse by the moment. He tried to bring his
snout down hard on BJ, but the angle was all wrong. The pain was too much,
the injury too severe. Darkness began creeping in on the edge of his vision
as his air supply was cut shorter and shorter. Then, BJ slammed him down.
He was glad he had a full jar of pickles before he did this. With Catchum
helpless on the ground, wondering how the hell he lost in his own water. BJ
stood over him, grinned, and sat on Catchum's face hard. BJ then gargled out
'Pickle Power!' The resulting fart blew away whatever life Catchum had left
in his body, literally.
BJ had always wanted to be one of those 'calling card' heroes, and so,
standing over Catchum's corpse, he pulled out a pickle out of his weight
belt, and then stuck it in Catchum's mouth. He sealed the mouth tight
around it. Satisfied with a job well done, he turned to go further into the
cave to find the young girl that he still needed to rescue.
It wasn't long before he surfaced up in a air filled cave, where he spotted
the young girl. "Heya, how're you doing?" was his first words to her.
Portia was surprised, she expected to see Catchum or Leland right now. "Umm,
who are you?" she asked timidly, not quite sure what to make of this
costumed....whatever he was.
"I'm Captain Pickles, and I'm here to rescue you!" Portia still didn't know
what was going on, much less whether or not she should come with this guy...
she couldn't believe her eyes... was this... a dinosaur?!
"Ummm...where's Montgomery?" she asked, tears welling up in her eyes. "Or
Bingo, or Zipper, or...?" she just dissolved into tears, sobbing against the
wall. BJ was getting nowhere. Catchum's henchmen could show up any second,
and he was no closer to getting this girl out of here. He was starting to be
forced to consider knocking her out in order to get her to come with him.
Then he got a bright idea. "I'm here to take you to them" he said. "They're
all really worried about you. They asked me to get you home safe to them."
He hated to lie, but he had no choice. It was either this, or do it by
force.
Portia then asked "B-but how do I get out of here?"
"Oh, I brought this for you." He unveiled the gear he got off the rat he
ambushed.
That was when she chose to believe him, he could see it in her eyes. She
launched herself forward and hugged him around the waist, yelling "Thank
you" over and over.
"OK OK, we gotta go, right now!" BJ yelled, and they quickly went. The thing
BJ was very glad of was that Portia didn't notice Catchum's corpse on the
bottom of the cave floor. When they left the cave, however, BJ's fear was
realized, as he saw a group of three scuba rats coming towards them. "Go!"
he yelled at Portia, and used he consderable strength to shoot her close to
the surface. Portia exited the water without another thought. BJ wasted no
time, grabbing one of the rats by his tail and launching him out of the
water. A second rat met the same fate. The third tried to hang back,
realizing this was no pushover he was dealing with. BJ grabbed this third
rat after a few seconds, threw him against a wall. Then, he started swimming
for the shore. In the meantime, Portia was back in Green Meadow, and went to
the Caboose, where she found the gang.
Portia was met with surprise whe she entered. "Portia!" Hugs and stuff all
around, and then she says...
"Thanks for sending that kid to rescue me!" Then, the expressions change
from ones of relief, to confusion.
"Ah... Portia..." Monty started, "We didn't send anyone. We were preparing
the caboose to turn over to Catchum for your release! You said another kid
rescued you?! Who?"
"He called himself Captain Pickles," she said with a smile. "He looked a
little weird, and I think he was a dino or something, but he saved me!"
"A dino.... as in a dinosaur?! Portia, were you breathing too much swamp
gas?"
"No! I swear he was real! While we were escpaing, he practicially threw me
out of the water to save me from a party of Catchum's rats!"
With puzzled looks from everyone, Zipper put down a pencil and paper.
"Alright, Portia, if this guy was so memorable, can you draw him?"
".... OK, but I want some crayons too."
Zipper walked over to Bingo. "OK, cough 'em up." Bingo grumbled but handed
over his crayon set.
"She better not use them all up," he muttered, getting a light rebuke from
the others in the process. As Portia began her work, she thought she would
just draw his head for now... so she began drawing as best as she could his
image. She was no artist, but she did the best she could. Then she took out
the green, yellow, and red crayons. Soon, she was finished. "There. That's
the best I can do him."
The others gathered around, trying to make heads or tails of the drawing. "I
guess it could be a dino," Bingo said, looking at it upside down to see if it
made any more sense that way.
"Sigh... one day, I'll be able to prove to you guys he was real..." Portia
lamented. Then, she looked out the window. She was amazed to see a familiar
red hat on the ground. She hopped outside and picked up the hat, hoping to
catach a glimpse of the guy who saved her, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Thank you," she whispered with a smile. Then she plopped the hat onto her
head and strutted back inside.
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