Unhinged // Lego City Adventures

Chapter Ten: Justice and Mercy

Bob and Clemmons ran out of the palace behind Duke and the others, and what Clemmons saw made him want to scream more than anything else. Everything was on fire. Freya was standing in the middle of it all, throwing dynamite. Clemmons couldn't decide what was scarier: the fact that everything was on fire, or the fact that Freya was the one setting everything on fire. He stood there in horror but Bob put his arm on his shoulder.

     "We need to hurry! We don't want Tippy to see us!"

     They ran towards the big doors that lead back home. They were so close. 20 feet...10 feet...

    Tippy cut them off, standing directly in front of the doors.

     "And where do you think you guys are going in such a hurry?" Tippy looked at the panting group, then saw Clemmons with them, freed. "Clemmons? How did you escape?"

     Duke growled at Tippy "Move over Tippy! Otherwise I'll make you."

     He stared at Duke's face, his eyes shielded by his sunglasses. He looked more ruthless when he was staring at Tippy like that, but Tippy stood his ground.

     Duke came charging up to Tippy, rearing back a clenched fist. Tippy didn't have time to do anything but close his eyes and brace for the punch.

     ...Nothing. He hesitantly opened his eyes. To his surprise, he saw Harl standing between him and Duke.

     "Don't hurt him!" he yelled.

     Duke glared under his sunglasses "Move over Harl! I've gotta show Tippy what happens when he messes with me!"

     Harl was very distressed. "We need to talk with him!"

     Duke snapped. "Harl, we've talked about this so many times! We can't talk to Tippy, he's insane."

     Tippy flinched at the word "insane". Duke said it with such venom. He'd never seen Duke so angry and so...vengeful.

     "Please." Harl was shaking, but Duke didn't relax his fist.

     "Harl get out of the way! Tippy needs to pay for everything he did!" A tear rolled down his cheek.

     Harl looked at Duke, who was trembling. "Duke, I understand that you want to get revenge on Tippy. But letting your pain and anger cloud your judgment is the easy way. The hard way is to give Tippy another chance."

     Duke's expression slowly changed as he relaxed his muscles and wiped away his tears.

     "Fine."

     Duke stepped back and folded his arms. After Harl addressed Duke, he turned to face Tippy.

     "Please Tippy," he said, "let us all go back home."

     Tippy scanned the crowd, completely baffled. "I thought everyone was happy here."

     Duke scoffed "No, Tippy. No one's happy."

     Tippy was astonished. No one but a select few people had voiced their dissatisfaction with Paradoors, and Tippy had worked hard to resolve things with those dissenters, and make them happy again. And Paradoors was supposed to have given them joy. It was supposed to be the height of human happiness. What went wrong?

     A voice chimed in from behind the crowd. "Actually I'm pretty happy here."

     Duke turned and was in shock. "Fendrich! Where have you been?!"

     "Tippy gave me a palace! The doors weren't all that great, but I can't complain too much because I have lots of gold."

     Duke raised his eyebrow. "So Tippy didn't hurt you?"