LPS: CFFs - Crime-Fighting Friends

Chapter 5: Dead Ends

Allie and the gang met back up at the police station to discuss their findings. Bristol explained that he had found two of Gear's workers locked up there at the same police station. Allie went to interview them while Roxie, Jacob, and Bristol stayed behind to continue talking.

While they were talking, Madison entered the police station, pretending to be her normal happy-go-lucky self, and she asked them if Allie was there.

"Yeah, she just went to interview some of the prisoners here." Jacob told Madison, completely believing she was still normal.

"I'm so happy Madison is safe! Allie will be so happy to see her!" Bristol smiled.

"Uh...guys...?" Roxie spoke up quietly. "Don't you think it's a little odd that she's here, when Gear had just captured her?"

"Oh, don't worry, Roxie! I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding! Maybe there was someone else in town who looked just like Madison, and Gear just got the wrong girl!" Bristol suggested.

"I don't know...something felt awfully fishy about her..." Roxie continued.

"Stop being so paranoid, Roxie! Everything is fine!" Jacob told her.

"O-Okay..." Roxie sighed. She didn't believe that everything was fine. She felt like Madison wasn't really herself.

Madison walked into the room with all the jail cells and found Allie talking to Soul, giving her tissues and attempting to comfort her. She looked to her side and saw Madison there.

"M-Maddie...?" Allie gasped. "Is that really you...?"

"Of course it's me, sis!" Madison answered, doing her best to sound cheerful. "What, did you think it would be someone pretending to be me? No!"

"I'm so happy you're safe!" Allie cried happily, running at Madison and hugging her.

"I'm sure you are..." Madison giggled in a deeper voice than normal. Allie backed away in confusion, then looked at Madison in shock when she realized what was happening.

"No...no, he couldn't have..." Allie gasped. "H-He said we had 72 hours to save you before this happened!"

"Yeah, well, villains tend to lie a lot, you know." Madison smirked. "Come on. I'll take you back with me. I've got a present for you."

"No! I won't go with you!" Allie shouted.

"What's wrong, sis? Don't you want to be with your sister again?" Madison asked her while faking an empathetic voice.

"Well...I do...but you're not my sister right now!" Allie answered. "You just look like her! You're someone else inside!"

From inside the cell, Soul whispered to Allie: "Run."

Allie took a deep breath, then ran past Madison, who chased her. Allie caught the attention of all of her friends when they saw her being chased by Madison.

"See! I told you she wasn't normal!" Roxie shouted.

"What do we do?!" Bristol asked, almost panicking.

"We have to distract Madison so Allie can get away..." Jacob told them. "So, who wants to be the distraction?"

Bristol and Roxie were both silent in fear. Neither of them wanted this corrupted Madison chasing them.

"Really guys?" Jacob sighed. "Fine. I guess that makes me the distraction."

Jacob walked away to get Madison's attention while Bristol and Roxie stayed behind and waited, hoping both of their friends would be okay.

Jacob ran outside after getting Madison to chase him, and Allie returned to Bristol and Roxie. She was out of breath from running, and immediately collapsed into the chair next to Bristol, tiredly leaning her head on his shoulder.

"You okay?" Bristol asked her.

"Yeah...just tired from running so much..." Allie panted. She looked around. "Where's Jacob?"

"He went to distract Madison so you could come back safely." Roxie explained. "I hope he's okay..."

Jacob came back shortly after, completely exhausted.

"I managed to lead Madison far enough away that she got tired of chasing me and went after someone else...phew..." Jacob sighed. "Heh, what do you know? I managed to save a friend and get a workout at the same time!"

"We're glad you're safe, Jacob." Allie said to him. "For all we know, that could've ended badly for either of us."

"Now we just have to find more of Gear's workers and figure out what's going on with this guy." Roxie nodded. "The only problem is that we keep hitting dead ends during our searches. It seems like most of the villains that work for Gear like to hide themselves away so nobody finds them."

"We'll have to be a bit more creative when we search, then." Allie suggested. "But we can't go out searching right now, not with Maddie still on the loose. We'll have to wait it out."