Cleft and Chase
-----------------10 MILES FROM THE MANSION----------------
"You're a real piece of work, Jimmy." the masked man said, smirking. "A chauffeur that gets lost on the way to his own destination... Did you, by any chance, graduate from the same school as that volunteer fireman whose department burned down last year?"
"I didn't get lost, sir. I was... taking a detour." a young man in a chauffeur's hat and suit replied, his brown eyes nervously scanning the dark freeway ahead of his benefactor's limousine, which was painted pitch-black and had blood-red velvet seats specifically for this time of the year.
"Through the same town three times?"
"...Well, it IS a nice night for a relaxing drive and I-"
"Nice night or not, Jimmy, it'd be very rude of us to show up late. Us and our young friend... Where is he, anyway?"
DNK-DNK-DNK.
"Never mind... I think I just found him..." the costumed man replied, rolling his eyes and signalling for Jimmy to open the rear windows. He did so, allowing his passenger to glance out at what had knocked on one of them.
Running alongside the car was a creature resembling an orange Sonic the Hedgehog, but with glasses, green sneakers, green gloves with blades on the sleeves, and spines that spread out behind his head rather than running straight back.
"You called?" the creature replied, smiling broadly at the occupants of the car.
"Cleft, are you aware of the dangers of running at top speed on a dark freeway with oncoming traffic?"
"Hahaha!" was Cleft's only reply, his spines bouncing with each stride. "Sure I am! I've been running in dangerous environments all my-"
HOOOOOOONK-HOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!
Cleft looked forward, seeing two huge white lights coming at him at high speed, a massive square shape right behind them.
"CLEFT!" Chase yelled, reaching out the window.
"Whoa, momma!" Cleft yelped, skidding to a stop.
The next few moments seemed to slow to a crawl. Cleft was capable of dodging the oncoming truck with ease, but Chase couldn't respond as fast... Cleft jumped up and left, pushing Chase's hand back into the window of his limousine and planting one foot against the limo door. A fraction of a second later, Cleft bounded off it and towards the rapidly approaching semi. He hadn't gotten enough momentum to clear it, so he quickly curled into a ball, hoping his Homing Dash could plow through it-
Just then, however, he felt something just grazing his back, underneath him. He glanced out of the corner of his eye, realizing that he was on a 'step' of some sort: the hood of the truck! Cleft instantly uncurled and drove his feet down, pressing the hood down hard enough to dent it as he propelled himself upward, just barely landing on the top of the truck. He dashed forward, stumbling over the gap between truck and tractor. The limo was passing the truck... Cleft had to act fast! He managed to roll to his feet, running at top speed to the back of the tractor and springing off, leaping as far as he could.
From inside the limo, things went much faster: All Chase caught was something forcing him back into the car just before the truck blared past and took off his head and arm, followed by a strong wind as an orange blur bounded up the front of the truck.
"Jimmy, the sunroof!" Chase ordered.
Jimmy nodded and opened the window atop the car; Chase stood up and looked back at the truck just in time to hear a familiar voice:
"INCOMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING...!!!"
WHAM! CRASH!
Jimmy looked in the rear mirror, seeing Chase half-sitting and half-laying on the backseat, a look of irritation on his face due to the slightly disheveled, orange, anthropomorphic hedgehog sitting on his head.
"Ummm... Hey, Chase?" Cleft asked, grinning sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck. "Uh... What exactly is a 'freeway,' again?"
-----------------------------
A short while later, the limousine pulled up in front of an old, decrepit mansion.
"This is the place, sir." Jimmy said.
"Yahoo!" Cleft squealed, jumping out of the sunroof and dashing to the trunk. "It's party time!"
Chase removed a gold pocketwatch from his suit and looked at it.
"Heh... We got lost three times and we're STILL 7 minutes early. I gotta hand it to you, Jimmy..."
And he DID hand it to Jimmy - the 'it' in question being a roll of $100 bills.
"...You're quite the capable driver."
"Thanks, Mr. Larson." Jimmy said as his boss grabbed a bottle of expensive vintage wine and got out. "Should I wait here or...?"
"Ready!" Cleft said, hopping out of the trunk, rubber balls covering his spines and a shiny yellow star taped to a strap wrapping his foremost spine. In his hand was a large bowl of fruit with fancy paper Chase had supplied wrapped around it.
Chase smiled.
"No, Jimmy, I think we'll be fine by ourselves..."
"Whatever you say. Have fun, sirs!" Jimmy responded, rolling up his windows and driving off.
"That's quite the... original costume, Cleft." Chase said as they walked up the footpath.
"Original AND safe!" Cleft replied, stopping in front of the door. "I might be friendly, but these spines sure ain't, haha!"
Chase nodded and knocked on the door, which sounded eerily hollow; the whole house seemed to groan in response.
As the duo waited for a response, the star on Cleft's forehead began to shimmer and glow a faint white...
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Sorry for the wait (and the length), but I'm here... Now the party can REALLY begin!
