Friendship is Failure #8: Teen Titans HSM V: Ways of Life

by DakariKingMykan

Act 6: Spike's Mission

ACT SIX

Rainbow was still brooding that afternoon, still upset over the humiliating and crushing defeat she suffered out in the field. She just sat at her desk in next period with her head hanging low.

“Ms. Dash…” the teacher said to her, “You’d better take down these notes for the test next week.”

“Sorry, sir.” her voice sounded very faint, barely recognizable. Her classmates all felt concerned for her, but as the day progressed, and periods continued she felt a little bit better, especially with all her friends bucking her up.

As Twilight walked to her locker at the end of the day, Spike poked his head up for a breath of air. “It’s so stuffy in here!” he groaned “And I really need a walk you know!”

“Quiet!” whispered Twilight as she stuffed him back inside “I’m sorry, Spike, I know you need to go for a walk but I can’t take you out right now. I know I usually take you out after school, but I have to meet with Principal Celestia in a few minutes.”

Still, seeing as Spike really needed to go, Twilight had an idea, and she slipped outside and let Spike loose in the bushes near the parking lot. “Stay right here where no one can see you and do… whatever it is you have to… I’ll come out when the meeting is done.”

Spike nodded in agreement, and then Twilight headed back towards the front-doors.

“Hey, Twily…” someone called to her. She turned round and saw none-other than her older brother, Shining Armor, and his wife Cadance, Principal and VP from Crystal Prep Academy, ever since Principal Cinch was fired in disgrace for her treachery from the Friendship Games.

“Big bro…!” Twilight cried as she jumped into his arms, and he gave her a soft noogie on her head. Then Twilight hugged her sister-in-law, and they did their happy cheer.

“Sunshine, Sunshine, ladybugs awake,
Clap your hands and do a little shake.”

They shared a loving laugh, and then Twilight’s parents came along, Twilight Velvet and Night Light… very odd names for humans.

“Mom, Dad!”

Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle hugged their daughter, unfortunately, they hadn’t come for pleasantries. They had been summoned by Principal Celestia, at Twilight’s request… all of them. “I’m so glad you all could find time to come.” Twilight said.

“Believe of us, honey, we’re just as concerned as you are.” said her mother.

“Speaking of concerned…” her father cut in, “We didn’t hear or see Spike anywhere when we got home. I hope he’s not lost.”

Twilight didn’t want to tell them she had been bringing Spike to school every day, fearing she’d be in trouble. “Oh, I’m sure he’s just fine.” She said trying to sound innocent, “Uh… shall we go inside.”

The adults sensed she was hiding something, but keeping in mind the reason they had come, they followed her inside.

Soon, there was an announcement made over the school intercom, by VP Luna. “Garfield Logan, please report to the Principal’s office, at once.”

Many students gasped, preferably the other Equestrians and the Murakami’s, and Garfield, he growled softly. He had just put on his cape was about to leave school. So he turned and walked towards the main office.

“Garifeld…” Terra called to him, but he didn’t even stop.

Twilight didn’t tell the others what she had planned; an intervention with her folks, her brother, and Cadance to discuss why he hadn’t been staying with them the past week.

Unfortunately, he just sat there with his arms folded.

“Mr. Logan…” Celestia said “I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I have been receiving news about your… attitude, and I must say it leaves much to be desired.”

Garfield remained unmoved.

Everyone exchanged concerned looks back and forth, and Luna suggested “Perhaps we should focus on the present situation as to why we are here, and that is Mr. Logan refusing to partake in your hospitalities”

Twilight’s folks agreed. “Garfield, why won’t you come home with us?” asked Night Light. “We fixed the place up specially; we even were willing to let you have Cadance and Shining Armor’s room.”

“Mom!” snapped Shining Armor, both he and Cadance felt embarrassed, but Garfield chuckled softly, “So, two big married adults still live at home with the folks, and I thought Twilight and her friends were pathetic…”

Everyone’s expressions turned shocked and livid.

Spike could heard everything from the bushes just outside the open window, and he, too, felt just as upset.

“That was very rude and uncalled for!” snapped Cadance.

“I agree…” added Celestia “Mr. Logan, I don’t know where you get this from, but this being rude with everyone will have to cease. These people have offered you their friendship as well as their home, you could at least show some bit of courtesy.”

Twilight, her folks, Cadance and Shining Armor all agreed, but Garfield just let out a huge yawn from weariness.

Luna took note of his weariness and realized that was also in the reports of the many dizzy-spells he had been having. “Mr. Logan, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” he replied, “But I’m late for work, I really have to go.”

He got up to leave but Cadance blocked the door, “Just a minute. We’re not through with you yet. Now that I have a better look at you, you look exhausted, overworked.”

“Besides, how can you go to work anyway?” asked Shining Armor, “That means you have to go all the way to Jump City, and that’s fifty miles away.”

“Big deal!” snapped Garfield “I’ve been going to work every day after school and then I just head straight home. It’s my life and it’s my choice. Now I ask you again to let me leave!”

Night Light and his wife were slightly relieved to finally know where Garfield was going after school instead of coming home with Twilight, but now they and everyone else seemed very concerned about Garfield health as well as his attitude problem.

Spike felt the same way as he listened in on everything, and his canine senses were starting to kick in telling him Garfield was hiding something, something really big. Since Twilight and the adults couldn’t get to the bottom of it, not like this, he decided to do a little sleuthing.

He looked over in the parking lot, over at Garfield’s moped, and he already had an idea of what to do.

“This is the last time I’m going to ask. Let me go!” Garfield said.

Celestia, feeling unethical about this in every sense told Cadance, “Let him go.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

Everyone else gawked at her wish outraged and confusion, but Cadance complied and let Garfield pass and he left the office and was gone.

All the other Equestrians and the Murakamis, except for the Js, peeked round the corner trying to listen in on everything being said in the office after he left.

“What is with that kid?” Shining Armor asked aloud, “I thought some of the students at Crystal Prep were still a big uptight, but he’s worse than all of them put together.”

Everyone else felt inclined to agree.

“Maybe we should talk with his parents.” suggested Night Light. His wife agreed, “Maybe this is all just a cry to get attention or a need to be disciplined.”

“…He doesn’t have any parents.” Celestia regretted to say. Everyone turned to face her. Normally, it was against confidentiality to reveal a student’s background in such ways, but Celestia saw it as unavoidable. “According to his student file, he has no known living relatives, and strangely enough, no existing home address or phone-line.”

Twilight felt that to be awful, and strange.

While outside, the others heard everything.

“Garfield’s an orphan?” Dick said.

“Oh, that’s heart-breaking.” cried Kori.

The others all agreed. “So maybe that’s why he’s so brash all the time.” suggested Rarity, “Perhaps he deeply misses his parents. I know I would.”

Applejack dismissed the idea, “I don’t think so…”

Rarity felt insulted, “I would so feel upset and--”

“No, no, I mean I don’t think that’s the only reason Garfield’s such a grump all the time.”

Pinkie sniffled, “Still, to have no parents. It’s more than I can bear.”

Fluttershy had tears in her eyes too. “That poor boy…”

Garfield, put on his helmet and air-goggled, and safely tucked his cape in down the back of his pants so it wouldn’t blow about. The he hopped onto his moped, and unlocked the controls.

“Charging port-engine…” the moped began to whirr to life as a counter-dial began to rotate. “Five-thousand… Seven-thousand… Nine-thousand… Eleven-thousand… Thirteen-thousand, Fourteen-Thousand, Fifteen-thousand RPMs!

Charing starboard-engine…

Eight… Ten… Twelve… Fourteen-- Both engines at Fifteen-Thousand…” he activated the break-locks to hold the moped firmly in-place for what was about to happen next, and he made a quick circle-check to see that nobody and nothing was near him!

“Fire One!”

POW!! Powerful exhaust flames shot out of the tailpipes behind.

“Fire Two!”

Another burst of flames, and the moped was ready to go. He drove the moped slowly out of the parking lot and onto the road where it was safer for his next move. “Full-boost vertical…!” and the moped slowly rose into the air like an elevator, which all the students around watched in awe.

Then the retractable wings spread out in back of the moped, and the moped flew off and away!

Twilight came back to the bush to collect Spike and secretly take home with her. “Spike… it’s me. You can come out now.” She whispered.

No response.

“Spike…?”

Still no response, and so she looked around in the bushes, “Spike...?!” she began to panic “Spike!”

Her friends had just come out from the building, heard her cries and rushed over. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” asked Rainbow. “I can’t find Spike!” cried Twilight.

“Spike...? Your dog?” asked Dick.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa…” Vic butted in “You’ve been bringing your dog to school?”

Applejack cut in, “Never mind that now. Let’s spread out and find him.”

“Oh, I hope he’s alright.” cried Kori. “Just what I was about to say.” added Flutttershy.

They searched all around the yard, calling out his name and whistling for him, but the little dog was nowhere to be found. They were still searching when the adults came out of the building having finished their own meeting discussion of what to do with Garfield.

“What is going on here?” Celestia asked “Why are you all still here?”

Twilight decided to come clean about her brining Spike to school, “I did it because I couldn’t leave him at home alone.”

As much as Celestia understood her actions she couldn’t ignore the rules. Still, that wouldn’t help the current situation, so she and the other adults agreed to help look for Spike.

Sadly, they never found him!

The search carried on right through the weekend. Twilight and her family posted reward posters around town, and the friends went around questioning other people, even enlisting their help to find Spike.

Even with all the many other people joining the search, or agreeing to keep a watch out… Spike was just nowhere to be seen.

Jackie and Jillian did not join in the search, they were much too busy with their own… secret project, and spent the weekend taking more pictures around the empty school, which they sent back to their employers on the zeppelin.

Also sending them a text: “How goes Phase Two?”

Their response: “Slowly but surely. Sometime next week, we will be ready to commence Phase Three. You serve us well.”

The girls exchanged wicked grins with each other.

“Hey, you two…” Terra called to them. She was very surprised to see them hanging around the school on a Saturday. “I thought you two hated school.”

“We do…” said Jackie “We’re just getting pictures… for our… scrapbook. Yeah.”

“What are you doing here?” asked Jillian “Still looking for that geek-girl’s mutt?”

Terra’s features hardened, “Hey, that’s not nice. She’s really worried about him and she misses him.”

“Well, it serves her right for bringing him to school.” Jackie teased.

“If she was worried about leaving him at home, she could’ve hired a dog-sitter.” added Jillian, but Terra was far from amused, but rather than get into a heated argument with them, she went off to look for Spike some more.

The Js merely brushed her off. “Finding that mutt’s the least of her problems.” said Jackie. Jillian agreed, “She doesn’t have any idea what kind of trouble is about to come.”

By Monday morning, there was still no word on where Spike was. Twilight came to school looking really down in the dumps. Her hair was messed up a little and her eyes were all baggy, mostly from staying up so late hoping someone would call, but also from a little bit of tear-shedding!

Rarity had been weeping too over Spike’s disappearance, and she had watery marks on her eyes, and was drowning herself on a bucket of ice-cream, which was also her breakfast.

“Poor Spike!” she sobbed “I don’t even want to begin to think what sort of things may have happened to him.

The goths felt very bad, and they were actually frowning sadly rather than their usual dark expressions. “Even the dark spirits let us down.” said Kato. “We asked for their guidance to help us, and they turned up blank.”

The others all blinked at them.

“Well, just the same, thanks for helping.” said Twilight as she sat on the stairs and fixed her hair, “I just wish I knew where he was, or why he ran off.”

“Do you want us to stay with you for a while?” asked Dick.

“Thanks, but… I really just want to be alone right now.”

The others hung their heads low and sadly walked into the school. “That was sweet of you, Dick.” Kori whispered to him, and Dick smiled softly.

Twilight continued sit by herself on the front steps, worrying about her little dog, when suddenly; someone stepped in front of her… Garfield! And he was holding Spike in his arms.

“Spike!” Twilight cried as she took her from him, but poor Spike looked as if he were transfixed. He was shaking very badly and whimpering fearfully.

“I found him at my home last night.” Garfield said, “I don’t know how he ended up there, but keep him on a leash next time!”

“Garfield, I…”

“Save it! I’m not interested in your thanks! I just returned him to keep him away from me and my home. We’ll call it even there.”

Then he walked past her into the school, but as his hand touched the door-latch, he had another weary-spell and looked as if he was really going to faint, but he just barely managed to snap to his senses, and he walked inside.

Nevertheless, as overjoyed as Twilight was she got Spike back, the poor little guy looked so traumatized and he felt cold to the touch, not to mention he was very dirty. “Spike…?”

Barely finding his voice and speaking a fearful stutter, Spike said, “S-S-So Scary. It’s a… N-n-n-nightmare…!!”

Twilight could see that Spike needed help straight away, as well as a bath, regardless of school rules.

Comments

[Pete100]

“Mr. Logan…” Celestia said “I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I have been receiving news about your… attitude, and I must say it leaves much to be desired.”

And you didn’t do anything?

[DakariKingMykan]

11203445

again, attitude is not the same as actions. As long as he doesn't cause big trouble, like push people or hit them, he'll be fine