Splinterbark: Chaos of the Coyote Crew

Chapter 3: Theme of the Coyote Crew

"And although the Silver Guardian had managed to rescue the hostages, he failed to catch the perpetrators. This latest disturbing failure following the attack of the mysterious creature on Halloween..." Vivian snatched the remote from Arthur's hand and promptly shut the television off.

"Aw come on Viv, its still my turn with the tv", her husband whined.

"I don't like this. The moment the news of the Golden Guardian disappearing spread, it seems this city is getting no end of costumed creeps." Arthur shrugged and popped the remote from the underside of Vivian's hand.

"This isn't anything too new from what things were before."

"I envy your capacity of optimism."

"You married me." Shelly watched her parent's jab each other playfully as she had her phone open to the news. They were both right though. They had just barely thrown Prism Break back into King's Island Prison and now these three show up. When she had gone back upstairs, she had noted that Frix had dragged her Splinterbark costume out from underneath the best and was trying to beat the accumulated dust bunnies out of it with a ruler. Shelly kicked the helmet back under the bed.

"Hey! I just finished cleaning that! Do you know how hard it is to use a spray bottle with pincers?" Shelly flung herself on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"They have robots. Just what is wood going to do against laser robots?" Frix groaned and tugged on the collar of Shelly's pajamas.

"Well if SOMEONE hadn't destroyed almost all of my powers, we could have put that silver sparrow to shame."

"Or just end up accidentally destroying the city", Shelly hissed back as she shoved the rest of her costume further back under the bed. She should just throw out the thing but last time she tried to toss out a bunch of old sketchbooks and her dad noticed. She often wondered if he played dumb on purpose. As Shelly lay there she pulled out the news footage of the robbery. The CCTV had managed to get some decent footage of the crime even with all the smoke and explosions. She could not shake the feeling that there was something very familiar with the costumes of the criminals.

She found out the next day that she was not the only one with the same nagging inclination. At school she chanced seeing Thomas walking out from the school field with a slight hint of sweat on his brow from his morning run.

"Saw the news last night?" was his greeting.

"The same verse as usual. You'd think they'd come up with some new lyrics", she responded. Both of them half expected to see Reed leave his chaffer's car in a grumpy mood and neither were interested in dealing with that.

When he had arrived he was walking practically past them and towards the main building; head down and his knuckles pressed against his chin. They ran to catch up with them and Thomas gave him an unsure 'good morning'. Reed seemed to snap out of whatever stupor he was in and muttered a greeting before going back into his trance almost immedately. Thomas and Shelly glanced puzzlingly at each other.

"Is he...all right in his head", Frix questioned Shelly. Reed frowned at the inquiry.

"You forget I CAN hear youm Frix? And I am fine. I just...I am trying to remember something. Something about that bank heist feels familiar."

"You too? Weird we're thinking the same thing. Another one of your dad's previous villains?" Shelly inquired. Reed shook his head slowly. This was not like Prism Beak. This memory felt older. As if on cue both of their phones chimed with a text notification.

"See me after school. I might have some information regarding the thieves you went against yesterday by then. –Blackbird" Neither had much time to mull on it as the first warning bell rang reminding them they still had to go to school.