The Big Trip
In an AU where Peter still has EDITH, but Tony is alive.
"Mr. Parker"
"Yes, EDITH?"
"Are you sure about this trip?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
He had never weighted the possibilities, never thought camping could go so... weirdly. But here he was, packing for a trip, grabbing everything he needed. It was almost christmas time. That's the first weird thing. Who goes camping during Christmas time. It was only the 19th, but still, they would be gone for four whole days, coming back a day before Christmas Eve.
"You don't know what will happen. The probability that something will happen is at its highest of 100%. Your Aunt May made a packing list, too. Would you like me to read it off?"
"One last time couldn't hurt." As EDITH started reading everything off, Peter replied with 'Check' and the occasional 'Wait, I need that?' After he had everything and went over the list one last time, he was sure he was ready for this trip.
The car ride to school was filled with 'I'll miss you's and 'Dont have too much fun's. Even if he didn't show it, he didn't like having to sleep so closely next to Flash. Who knew? One night he could wake up on the pond, or worse, in a tree!
As they arrived at school, the clock struck 5 A.M. The crack of dawn had struck and it was showing on everyone's faces. Mr. Harrington was bright eyed and bushy tailed, though. Worry had struck everyones faces when he said,"Now where did I put that map... I always lose that thing..."
The bus left at 6 A.M., but Mr. H wanted to give his normal, hour long," What are we not gonna do? Lose another kid!" And... well, he did. And the bus driver were deciding whether or not to leave without him.
As the students boarded the bus, the bus driver groaned about how they brought open food and such on the bus, yelling,"If you spill anything on this bus, I'll make my wrath worse than the chitauri's when they came to New York."
Flash, of course, decided it was a great opportunity to yell back,"Hey, why are you wearing aviators when it's not even sunny out?"
"Do you want me to come back there?" The old man turned and yelled in reply.
"Alright, kids, settle down. We've got a four hour ride ahead of us and we cant make our nice bus driver already not want to drive us!" Mr. H trembled.
Flash mumbled some thing under his breath, but was too busy looking at Peter's pants to continue, instead saying,"Hey Parker, nice Hello Kitty pants." Peter, of course, found this as a perfect opportunity, too.
"Well at least I'm not wearing a Gabba Gabba shirt." He had peered a few minutes ago through Flash's jacket to see the shirt. Now, he was trying his hardest to cover it up.
"You're gonna pay for that peter..." he mumbled again.
The next four hours were torture, but Ned and Peter survived. As they arrived at their campsite (more like open woods), Mr. Harrington put Peter, Ned, MJ, and Flash on Tent Duty.
While wearing the EDITH glasses, Peter had known exactly how much pressure he was applying to the poles, but didn't realise that as soon as he took the glasses off, he added too much pressure to the tent pole and...
*Snap*
"How did you mess that up Parker? You ought to be lucky. I brought a bunch of extra poles, in case Mr. Harrington broke a few more this year." Flash was right. Last year, Mr. H broke so many poles, it wasn't even funny... well... it WAS funny, but they promised not to laugh.
Peter, making the correct choice, put back on the glasses and let EDITH measure how much pressure he added to the poles once more, but as soon as he started sweating, he took them off once more and...
*Snap*
"Again? Really Parker?"
This happened about two more times before...
"PARKER! I SWEAR, IF YOU BREAK ONE MORE, ILL BREAK YOU" It didn't look like Flash was kidding, either.
This last one, it was perfect. Slid right into the other pole, no problem.
"Well, there's an hour's work." Ned exclaimed, looking at the huge tent that was displayed. Everyone got one per four people. Seeing as only 12 people, teacher included, came along, it didn't seem half bad. Even if Peter had to sleep in the same tent as Flash. MJ and the other 3 girls got a tent, a few stray boys got their tent, Mr. Harrington got his own tent, and Peter, Ned, and Flash got their's.
Mr. H came out of his poorly set up tent, exclaiming,"Bug spray, everyone! Wouldn't want anyone to scar from bites!" He looked slightly worried, but continued on," MJ, come on, let's get you sprayed" As everyone got their bug spray on, Peter stood quietly with Ned, waiting for their turn. Peter knew, in his mind, something bad was going to happen. Lucky, there was a long nearby in case he spontaneously combusted.
"Ned, come on over! No need to stand so far away, you too, Peter!" Mr. H called over to the pair. Ned strutted over while Peter was hesitant.
"OK Ned, you first." Mr. Harrington sprayed the bug spray onto Ned, some flying into Peter's face, making him cough. "Smells bad, I know. Well, dont worry, Pete, it's your turn!" Peter walked over, outstretched his arms and waited. Mr. Harrington shook the container violently as Peter sat there, T-Posing.
"Mr. Harrington?"
"Annnnd... got it! Let's go!" He started spraying the bottle. As soon as the spray hit Peter's arm, his skin turned bright red and hives began to form. "Wha-?" Mr. H started.
"OH MY GOD, HOW EXPIRED IS THAT?" Peter shrieked in pain,"MY GOD, THAT BURNS." He took a leap of faith into the pond, screaming.
After drying off and a call to Aunt May, Peter was all good to keep going. Even with hives on his body, he could still have fun.. even if... he wanted.. to itch... the hives... so... badly... But none the less! He must carry on!
"Well, after that disaster, we have now learned that Mr. Parker here is allergic to bug spray! Maybe we can try and enjoy our lunch. It is..." He looked at his watch,"12:27! We're going to have some walking tacos! Sounds great, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement, as they were starving.
Lunch and the afternoon flew by like a rocket aimed at a bus full of teens on a trip to see landmarks and soon it was time to sleep. Peter and Ned had noticed a small trail of spiders following them, but paid no mind. MJ and Flash however, nothing can get past them.
"What's that, dickwad?" Flash smacked Peter across the head as he pointed towards the spiders.
"Ow.. it's nothing, they probably just like the smell of the bug spray." Peter replied.
"Are you sure?" MJ chimed in.
"Pete said it's fine, so its fine. It's time to go into your tent and sleep. Okay?" Ned jumped in. Both muttered 'okay' and walked towards their tents in shame. As Peter and Ned walked back to their tents, the small army of spiders followed. Although Peter was Spiderman, he was deathly afraid of the things.
Night passed and Peter hadn't slept a bit, with the spiders climbing all over his face, resting like a cat right then and there, and waking up to jump from him, to Ned, to Flash, and then back. Plus he was frozen to the core every few minutes, he would grab a new sweatshirt and bundle up.
Ned woke up to see a tired Peter looking like a huge marshmallow, but a living ice cube.
Morning came and went almost the same as the day before, without the allergic reaction.
Mr. Harrington noticed a hot springs on the opposite side of their camping site and decided that everyone should go swimming! Splendid idea. After everyone got changed into their suit, Peter, although he had a perfect body, felt uncomfortable. As soon as he walked out of his tent, MJ wouldn't stop gasping and staring. They clambered into the springs, yelling for others to get out of the way. All the girls were interested in Petey Boy and all the guys were interested in the girls.
Except for Mr. Harrington, he tried, he really did, to keep his eyes off of Peter, but... who could resist such perfect abs?
The day then went on without a hitch and they all went to bed. But... Flash had other ideas.
He gathered up all of the boys, excluding Ned and Peter, and picked up Peter's blow up bed, sending it off on it's own journey into the pond.
Peter woke up to Ned yelling for Mr. Harrington, saying Peter is missing. At that moment, he was fully awake, and screaming. In fact, this scared him so much that he jumped off the mat and onto a tree.
Which was difficult to explain to Flash.
Who had seen the entire (not really, but he insists that he did) thing.
But, who cares! He's got an extra mattress and all ne needed to do was figure out a way down from this very high, very unstable tree.
The process of getting Peter down from that tree required 4 threats from Mr. H, many concerned students, 2 calls to the fire department (one making the call, the other canceling it) and a partridge in a pear tree.
Mr. Harrington was on his last straw with Peter. One last thing went wrong and they were ending the trip early.
But, the only thing that went wrong was on the last day after everything was packed up and on the bus.
"Okay, guys, since you all have no reason or proof that I can get me fired, I have decided to reward you all! Since we are only having lunch together and you'll be home for dinner, I have brought, drum roll please!" Silence,"Okay.. CANDY CANES!" Peter and Ned exchange 'The Look'.
"Okay, everyone, grab a max of 2!"
"I'll only have one Mr. Harrington, thanks though." Peter said.
"That's fine with me! How about you, Ned?"
"I'll take one, too."
"Great! Okay, guys, let's eat on the bus to save time!"
As everyone got onto the bus, they all started unwrapping their candy canes, except Peter.
He waited until about two hours into the trip to eat his candy cane.
Ned, sitting beside him, told him he should wait until he's home, so he can experiment. But, hey, go with the flow, man.
As Peter put the candy cane in his mouth, it started to burn, worse than the bug spray. He decided that the best option was to stay quiet and silently chew on the candy cane.
That was not the best option.
He started to cough, badly. Peter caught Ned's and Mr. Harrington's attention, who told the bus driver to stop and got up, helping Peter off the bus to spit out the peppermint cane and get water.
After that, everything else was fine.
They got to the school and Aunt May was standing with Tony Stark and a shiny car.
"So! How was your field trip?" Tony asked Peter and Ned as soon as the got into the car.
"It was so awesome!" Replied Peter
"Dude, you had two allergic reactions, had spiders up your arms the whole time, woke up one morning in a tree, broke a tent, and almost went into hibernation. It was not awesome." Ned sourly responded. In the background, you could hear Aunt May snickering.
Thanks for reading! And thanks @becausewhyknotme @agentpeggybarnes @ilovetomatoes3000 @night0seven for the inspiration!
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Six Baudelaires AU, Part One {AO3} {Read from the Beginning}
Chapter Sixteen → in which Solitude leads a Jailbreak
“No!” Sunny shouted.
“Sunny’s right, the Incredibly Deadly Viper isn’t poisonous!” Violet said.
“It’s one of the friendliest snake species in the world.” Lilac added.
“Now, children,” Poe said, “It’s called the Incredibly Deadly Viper.”
“It’s a misnomer.” Klaus said.
“Gesundheit.” Poe said. “Children, why don’t you go get your suitcases, and we’ll discuss how to get you into town.”
“We’re not-” Nick began.
“Actually,” Violet said over him, elbowing him in the ribs, “That sounds good. Everyone, come with me.”
Carefully, the siblings stood up, and the boys picked up the infants, and they walked outside the kitchen and up the stairs.
“Alright, Vi, what’s up?” Nick asked, as Violet once again tied back her hair.
“The Incredibly Deadly Viper clearly couldn’t have killed Monty.” Violet said. “Olaf made a horrible mistake in picking him to blame.”
“Technically, Lucafont blamed him.” Nick said.
“Okay, that was clearly one of his troupe members.” Klaus said. “The- I’m not quite sure what their gender is.”
“Was it?” Nick asked. “I don’t remember what anyone looks like, honestly.”
“What about us?” Klaus said.
“Naw,” Nick shrugged, as they reached the top of the stairs, “If you guys left me alone for a few hours I’d forget who you are.”
“Okay,” Violet said, “We need to find the Incredibly Deadly Viper and prove it’s not poisonous. Sunny, you’re its best friend, can you do that?”
“No, no,” Lilac said, “We’re not sending Sunny anywhere alone.”
“Helpy!” Solitude said, as she shoved Babbitt into her pocket. “I can assist her!”
“No, no,” Lilac said, “We need a better plan; Stephano’s shown he’s fine with murdering people, he might kill the snake before we can prove anything.”
Sunny gasped, tears springing to her eyes at the thought of losing her Uncle and best friend so close to each other.
“You’re scaring Sunny!” Klaus said.
“She should be scared!” Nick said. “If Olaf gets us out of the country-”
“We need to find a murder weapon.” Violet said. “I bet it’ll be in Stephano’s suitcase. Lilac, think we can break into the car and suitcase?”
“Absolutely.” Lilac said. “Used to break into Mom’s car whenever you guys left your stuffed animals or toys in there.”
“Wait, really?” Klaus stared at her.
“Why didn’t you just ask Mom to open the car?” Nick asked.
“Not as fun.” Lilac shrugged.
“Klaus, Nick,” Violet said, “I need you to read up on Uncle Monty’s notes. Find evidence that the Incredibly Deadly Viper isn’t deadly. Soli, stick with them, you probably remember where Monty kept his journals.”
“Ye!” Solitude nodded.
“We’ll take Sunny.” Lilac said. “She can help us and not bother you.”
Klaus nodded, passing the baby over to Lilac. “We’ll go as fast as we can.”
“If they try to take you away,” Lilac said, “Cause a distraction til we get back.”
“What kind of distraction?” Nick asked.
“You’ve all read a million books,” Violet said, “Surely one of them had something about causing a distraction.”
“I read about the Trojan Horse.” Klaus said.
“Then build a Trojan Horse.” Violet said. “Go nuts, stay safe, don’t die.”
“Same to you.” Nick said, and the groups split off.
“Alright,” Klaus said, as they ran towards the Reptile Room, “We need to find Uncle Monty’s notes on the Incredibly Deadly Viper.”
“It was in one of his journals,” Nick said, “But I can’t remember which one.”
“Iee!” Solitude said, which meant, “I do!”
“Okay,” Klaus nodded, as they reached the bottom of the stairs, “We just…”
The boys stalled, turning to look at the wide open door of the Reptile Room. Soli leaned against Nick’s shoulder, and, very quietly, he said, “We… should go in.”
“Yeah.”
“The body’s not in there.”
“Yeah.”
“And nothing can actually hurt us.”
“Except Olaf. And he’s not there.”
“Yeah.”
Still, they stood in place, glancing at each other. Finally, Klaus said, “Lilac and Violet need us to do this.”
“Yeah.”
Klaus reached out to grab Nick’s free hand, and Nick squeezed his palm slightly as they walked into the Reptile Room.
Once they got in, Nick said, “Shit, Klaus, the reptiles need fed.”
“Not a big worry right now.”
“They need food, Klaus! It’s not their fault that- that all this is happening.”
“We’ll feed them after we find Monty’s notes.”
Nick sighed. “I mean…” He glanced at Soli, who also looked distressed. “Yeah. Yeah, we’ll find Monty’s notes, and then everything will be okay.”
Klaus ran to the shelves, scanning. “Where are his journals?”
Solitude pointed towards the right, and Nick walked over to the far shelves, kneeling down to find the bound journals, kept closer to the floor so they were easier to grab. “They all look the same.” he said.
Solitude crawled out of his arms, looking over the journals carefully. As Babbitt hopped out of her pocket and across the floor, she said, “Recente,” which, in this case, meant, “It was in the newest one, so it should be on one of the ends.”
“I’ll take one end, Klaus’ll take the other.” Nick said. “Klaus, come here. Take one of these two- Klaus?”
Nick and Solitude looked towards Klaus, who had stopped behind Monty’s desk. He was looking up at a picture on the wall, one of Monty in the jungle that they’d never looked at closely.
“Klaus, hey.” Nick picked up the journals and walked over to his brother. “Take one.”
“Look at the picture.”
“Yeah, I know, it’s Uncle Monty-”
“Look what he’s holding.”
Nick looked up at the picture. “Some kind of telescope? I don’t-”
Klaus reached into his pocket, pulling out the mysterious cylinder, and he held it up. “Look. Doesn’t this look like the bottom half?”
Nick glanced between the cylinder and the picture, slowly realizing that it did. “Holy fuck.”
“And if the top half was the half that crumbled at the house-”
“Holy fuck.”
“It’s a spyglass, Nick!”
“Half a spyglass.”
“What the hell does that mean? Why did Mother and Father have a spyglass with the Eye on it?”
“It looks like Monty’s does, too.” Nick said, looking at the picture again. “It makes up the hedges, too.”
“It’s everywhere.”
“Actually,” Nick narrowed his eyes, “That’s a weird-ass looking eye, isn’t it? Like some kind of symbol.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I-” Nick stopped suddenly, listening carefully. As Klaus paused, he realized that he could hear the same thing; distantly, Mr Poe was coughing, and Stephano was speaking, and those noises were getting louder.
“Shit, they’re coming in here.” Nick said. He paused, and then threw the journals into Klaus’s hands before pushing him to the ground.
“Hey! What the-”
“Stay behind the desk.” Nick said. He then vaulted himself over said desk and ran over to the cage of the two-headed cobra. “Soli, stay- Soli?” He looked towards the shelves, to see that she had vanished. “Goddamnit.”
“Language, Nicholas.” Poe said, and Nick jumped, turning to stare at the adults who’d just entered. Nurse Lucafont and Stephano were both giving him suspicious glares, while Poe simply looked a bit bemused. “Where are your siblings?”
“Upstairs, packing stuff up.” Nick said. “I came in here to feed the reptiles. We forgot this morning.”
“I should’ve thought you’d never want to see a reptile again.” Poe said.
“Well, we don’t want to neglect our chores.” Nick then turned to glare at Olaf. “Wouldn’t you agree, Stephano, that children ought to do all of the chores assigned to them?”
Stephano returned his glare. “Well…”
“Well, Nick, that was a very nice thought,” Poe said, “But we really should be going. Now, I know you all wanted to see the doctor’s car, but really, we don’t believe there’s any way for us to get into town unless the six of you travel with Stephano-”
Nick glanced out the windows of the Reptile Room, towards the cars parked outside, and he froze a second when he saw Lilac and Violet out there, standing by Stephano’s car. We need more time…
He turned, and saw, to his horror, that Stephano was also looking out the window.
Fuck, fuck, fuck…
“Can’t we make sure the Reptiles are alright?” Nick shouted. “Or take some with us into town? I think I’d like to take the Mamba du Mal.”
“I’m not sure that would be a good idea.” Stephano said.
“And why not?” Nick asked, trying not to glance at the desk, to make sure Klaus was still behind it, reading as fast as he could. “It’s a perfectly harmless snake. In fact-” he heard a click, and he turned, smiling widely, “Solitude’s fetching it right now!”
The adults turned and stared in shock as Solitude, having managed to hoist herself on top of a sidetable, flipped open the lock on a cage, and a large, orange snake slithered out, off the table and onto the floor. Solitude let out a loud laugh, and Nick laughed, too, as Stephano and Nurse Lucafont leapt back. Poe jumped, too, and he said, “Solitude! You shouldn’t have let it out, we’ll have to put it back!”
“Free!” Solitude cheered, and as they watched, she ran to another cage, flipping open the lock so she could grab and throw a large, three-eyed toad. “Free!”
“Put that back this instant!” Stephano yelled.
“Be free!” Soli shouted.
“Look,” Nick said, smiling as the snake slithered closer, “The Mamba wants to say hello.”
“We need to get away from that creature!” Stephano shouted. “It’s one of the most deadly snakes in the animal kingdom!”
“Can’t be more deadly than that.” Nick said, pointing to a cage that Solitude had jumped towards.
“Solitude! Leave that closed!” Poe shouted, but the toddler didn’t listen.
“Snake!” Solitude shouted as she opened the cage. “Free! Free Snake!”
“Free the snakes!” Nick cheered.
Stephano shouted, “She’s unleashing poisonous animals!”
“You mean that frog?” Nick asked. “No, it’s harmless.”
“The Mamba du Mal has the deadliest and most fast-acting venom in the world, you imbecile!” Stephano shouted. “We have to leave before it attempts to bite us!”
“Uh, boss?” Nurse Lucafont began.
“Really? How would you know that?” Nick said.
“I’ve read Doctor Montgomery’s books, I know what snakes are here, and the Mamba du Mal is poisonous!”
“Well, it is,” Nick said, “But I thought you knew nothing about snakes.”
“Yes,” Poe said, suddenly realizing, “You said you didn’t know anything.”
Stephano paused a moment, as Nick smirked and Soli continued to laugh. “Well- well, I was being modest.”
“You weren’t being modest,” Nick said, “You were lying. And my siblings and I…” he paused, glancing towards the window. Lilac and Violet were still at Stephano’s car, but something had just hit him.
Where’d they put Sunny?
It was at that moment that they heard a screech from the foyer.
“Alright,” Lilac said, as the boys and Soli headed for the stairs, “We need a lockpick. Now, the easiest lockpicks to make are out of bobby pins, paperclips-”
“Or we could just have Sunny bite us a lockpick.” Violet said.
“I don’t think she can do that.”
“Come on, Li, have faith in her.”
Lilac sighed. “I have some pins in my room.”
“Alright, fine.”
They ran to Lilac’s room, where she tied back her hair and dug through her desk of items, pulling out two bobby pins. “We’ll only need these. Sunny, pull this bobby pin into a long piece, and get the rubber knobs off.”
“Roger.” Sunny said. “I got it.”
“Violet,” Lilac said, “Bend one end of this back in on itself, make a loop, and then bend it into a right angle.”
Violet stared at her. “What?”
Lilac sighed, and then did it herself, grabbing some pliers off of her desk in order to make the bending easier. Once she and Sunny were done, Lilac said, “Now we just have to get out of the house without being seen.”
“We could climb out the window.” Violet suggested.
“Does your shoulder still hurt?”
“Not that much-”
“Not risking it. We’ll just go out the front and hope they don’t catch up.” Lilac said, hiking up her skirt and starting to tie it back; she remembered, briefly, how her Mother had taught her how best to tie back long dresses and skirts if she planned to run in them. “Hold Sunny, let’s move out.”
The girls ran, then, through the hall and down the stairs. Lilac quickly opened the front door, hoping that nobody heard the creak as she did, and they ran to the cars.
“We don’t have much time.” Lilac said, lifting the trunk of Stephano’s car and grabbing the suitcase, pulling out her bobby pins and getting to work. “Violet, give me some help.”
“What do you need?”
Lilac stuck the angled pin into the bottom, turning it slightly, before saying, “Hold this still. Not a lot of pressure, but keep it here.”
Violet nodded, placing Sunny onto the grass and grabbing the pin. Lilac grabbed the second one, sliding it into the top of the lock and jiggling it a little. After a minute, she pushed a little, waiting for a click.
“Is that it?” Violet asked.
“Nope.”
“Ugh, this is taking forever!”
“Would you rather break open the lock with a flamethrower?”
“Yes! Was that an option?”
“Violet!”
Sunny groaned, flopping onto her back in the grass. As her sisters argued and picked the lock, not noticing what she was doing, she sat up again, intrigued by a noise from the bushes. Then, still unnoticed, she started to crawl off.
“Got it!” Lilac finally said, flipping open the suitcase. She threw aside some shirts, and then held up an empty syringe. Violet pulled out a glass vial and some small, folded papers, and Lilac also held up a laminated card and a makeup kit. The sisters put the items all in a row on the floor of the trunk, along with the clothes and an empty wine bottle.
“Alright,” Violet said, tying back her own hair. “How do we fit these together?”
Lilac bit her lip. “Wait. Haven’t you seen this vial before?”
Violet’s eyes lit up. “Yes! And if that went into the syringe-”
“This card is Uncle Monty’s.”
“The makeup- you were right!”
“We’ve got it.” Lilac said. “Hurry, gather all this up, so we can-”
That’s about when they, themselves, heard the scream from the foyer.
“Goodness, golly, good God, Mary and Joseph, Zeus and Hera, Nathaniel Hawthorne!”
Poe had started panicking after running into the foyer, as Stephano, Nurse Lucafont, Nick and Soli raced up behind him. After a moment, Nick placed Solitude on the ground, and the two of them started to laugh.
Sunny was sitting in the middle of the foyer, and wrapped around her was the large, black snake that had been missing all day.
“Ink!” Soli shouted.
“It’s the Incredibly Deadly Viper!” Nick translated.
“Don’t touch her!” Poe shouted. “Grab her! Move closer! Run away! Don’t move! Kill the snake! Leave it alone! Give it some food! Lure it away! Don’t let it bite her!”
Sunny and the Incredibly Deadly Viper watched Poe with some amusement, and then, slowly, the Viper leaned forwards and gently bit Sunny on the nose.
“It’s bitten her!” Poe shouted. “It bit her! It bited her! Calm down! Get moving! Call an ambulance! Call the police! Call a scientist! Call my wife! This is terrible, this is awful, this is gastle, this is phantasmagorical-”
“This,” Nick said, “Is fine.”
“The Incredibly Deadly Viper just bit her!” Poe said.
“The Incredibly Deadly Viper,” came Klaus’s proud voice, and Nick moved aside so his brother could push past him, reading directly from Monty’s journal, “Wouldn’t hurt a fly. I know this because I tried to feed it flies this morning. It is friendly and kind, playful and smart, and a wonderful addition to the family.” He held up the journal and said, “Those were Dr Montgomery Montgomery’s notes from April 24th. The Incredibly Deadly Viper could not have killed Uncle Monty.”
“But he was killed from a snakebite!” Poe said.
“Yes,” Nick turned to Stephano, smirking, “Would you like to tell us more about venomous snakes, Stephano?”
Olaf glared, but before he could even respond, Lilac walked in the front door, carrying a heavy suitcase in her arms. “Well, we could tell you a bit about venom.”
“You are so fucked!” Violet shouted excitedly, running in after her.
“Language.” both Lilac and Poe said.
“What is this?” Stephano asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Surely you’d recognize your own suitcase.” Lilac said, walking past him and into the Reptile Room.
As Klaus picked up Sunny, everyone hurried to follow her as she slammed the suitcase onto Monty’s desk, and as she did, she said, “Nick, why is the Androgynous Cobra outside of its cage?”
“Distraction. Soli, put the cobra back.” Nick said.
Solitude groaned, but ran after the non-venomous snake that happened to bear a slight resemblance to the Mamba du Mal, so long as you weren’t looking too closely.
Lilac flipped open Stephano’s suitcase, and Violet raced up beside her, and the two girls laid out items onto the table.
“That suitcase,” Stephano protested, “Is private property, which you are not allowed to touch. Besides, wasn’t it locked?”
“It was.” Violet said.
“We picked the lock.” Lilac said proudly.
“Nice girls shouldn’t know how to do that sort of thing.” Poe said.
“My sisters are nice girls,” Klaus said, “And they know how to do all sorts of things.”
“We’ll discuss that later.” Poe said. “In the meantime, continue.”
“When Uncle Monty died,” Lilac said, “We were immediately suspicious.”
“No, we weren’t.” Nick said. “If we were suspicious, it’d mean we weren’t sure, but we were sure that Stephano killed him.”
“Dr Montgomery died from a snakebite.” Lucafont insisted. “Even if it didn’t come from the Incredibly Deadly Viper.”
“Uncle Monty,” Violet said, “Was killed by snake venom, but not by a snake.”
“This vial,” Lilac held up the vial from the suitcase, “Is labeled ‘Venom du Mal,’ and it’s from Uncle Monty’s cabinet of venom samples. If you look, you’ll see it is missing from its place- isn’t that right, Klaus?”
Klaus, who was closest to the cabinet, turned and looked, before nodding. “Gone.”
“Stephano took this syringe,” Violet said, “And injected the venom into Uncle Monty. Then he poked an extra hole to imitate a snakebite. Friends and enemies, this is our murder weapon.”
“But I loved Dr Montgomery Montgomery,” Stephano said, “I would have had nothing to gain from his death.”
“Yes, you would!” Violet said. “Because you’re Count Olaf, and once Monty was dead, you could steal his ticket to Peru-” she held up folded papers- “Using his ID to pretend you were him-” she held up a laminated card- “And hiding us in Peru until Lilac turned eighteen and gained access to our fortune.”
“He is Count Olaf.” Lilac insisted, holding up a makeup case, “And he used this makeup to cover up his tattoo!”
“That is absurd!” Stephano said.
Finally, though, Mr Poe said, “Well, we’ll see about that. Who has a cloth?”
“You always have a handkerchief with you.” Nick reminded him.
“Oh, that’s right.” Poe turned to Stephano. “Your left ankle, please.”
“You’ve been coughing into that all day!” Stephano protested. “It has germs!”
“If you are who the children think you are,” Poe said, “Germs are the least of your problems.”
Very slowly, and grumpily, Stephano pulled up his left pant leg. Poe knelt down and rubbed at it for a few moments, and then, the faint outline of an eye began to appear.
“See?” Violet smirked. “You’re fucked.”
“Violet, please.” Lilac said, though she also smiled.
Count Olaf, then, gave a sinister smile. “Bravo, children.” he said, dropping his ridiculous fake voice, “Yes, I killed Monty. And his idiot assistant Gustav, I drowned him in a pond. But what are you going to do about it?”
“Why, you’ll go to jail!” Poe said. “Nurse Lucafont, please keep an eye on Olaf while I alert the authorities!”
Nurse Lucafont did not move, and slowly, the children realized a flaw in their plan.
“That is not a real Nurse.” Klaus said. “That is one of Olaf’s henchpeople!”
“And they will not be helping you do anything.” Olaf said, and his hand hovered over his pocket, where the children suspected his knife still remained, “In fact, I believe I’ll be taking the children now.”
The children looked to each other, each realizing that they had forgotten the minor detail of needing to detain Olaf after proving it was him.
“We,” Nick said, “Are not good at thinking ahead.”
But as they looked at each other, Violet realized something. “Wait.” she said. “Nick, where’s Soli?”
Nick paused, glancing around the floor, having expected her to be next to him. He felt a flash of panic, one that died as soon as he heard, “Free!”
They turned, to see Solitude, once again, unlock a cage, and two snakes burst out onto the ground. And as they kept looking around the room, they saw that, while they were talking, she had gone around opening all of the cages she could reach.
“Free!” Solitude shrieked, running across the floor as reptiles swarmed across the floor, hissing and snarling. “Be free, snakes!”
“Oh my…” Lilac said, as Violet slowly hoisted herself onto Monty’s desk.
Solitude raced to stand beside Nick, and the reptiles started to move around the room. Olaf stepped back, looking very concerned as they all turned towards him. The broken-hearted crocodile crawled from its corner, and the Virginian Wolfsnake hissed, and the Inky Newt left black footprints across the floor as it crept across.
And then, from the table, the screeching iguana leapt onto Olaf. Solitude let out a gleeful laugh as Olaf started running, Nurse Lucafont following closely.
“Snake! Froggy! Croc!” Solitude cheered. “Kill!”
“I feel like I should be scared of how excited Solitude is about this.” Lilac said. “But, honestly, I’m just glad Olaf’s not-”
“He’s getting away!” Nick shouted, picking up Soli and running after the villain.
“Crud, you’re right.” Lilac muttered.
The children ran to the front of the house, only to see Nurse Lucafont’s car pulling out of the driveway.
“No!” Klaus shouted.
“No!” Sunny also shouted.
“Son of a bitch!” Nick yelled.
“Language!” Poe said, coming up behind them.
“We have to go after them!” Lilac said, running out, as Violet slid to a stop behind her.
“This is a job for the police.” Poe said. “I will go call them, and they’ll set up a roadblock.”
He ran back inside the house, and as soon as he was gone, Violet said, “Olaf wasn’t in that car. He just ran into the labyrinth, I saw him.”
“Well, then,” Nick said, adjusting his hold on Solitude, “He’s not getting away.”
“And what will you do when you catch him?” Lilac asked. “He has a knife!”
“Like I said,” Nick said, starting to run, “We are not good at thinking ahead!”
“Nick, you idiot!” Lilac shouted, racing after him, and soon all the children were running into the hedges.
Lilac followed Nick and Solitude down a left path, and after a split second hesitation, Violet, Klaus and Sunny ran down the right. The groups went as fast as they dared, struggling to think about what they would do if they actually found Olaf. Lilac and Violet considered what potential inventions they could make out of the few items they had around them. Nick and Klaus scoured their memories for any books they’d read on self-defense- not many, because neither of them were really fighters. Solitude wondered if she could somehow summon some of the reptiles she’d set free, or if any of them were following them, and Sunny just assumed that their plan was to, as Nick had suggested, simply all jump on Olaf and hit him until he gave up.
They all met up at the center of the maze, and as both groups turned around the bend, they were just in time to see a trapdoor swing shut.
“Fuck!” Nick shouted, running forwards, dropping Solitude onto the ground and grabbing the handle, struggling to lift it. His siblings ran beside him, observing that the top of the door had been covered in dirt and leaves so as to disguise it.
“Let me try.” Lilac said, but as she tried the handle, she found that it was, indeed, stuck. “There must be a lock inside.”
“Can you pick this lock?” Violet asked.
“I’m sorry, do you see a lock I can pick?”
Violet flipped her off, and Klaus said, “So that’s it? He got away?”
“Son of a bitch!” Nick shouted.
“Nick, language. Sunny and Solitude are here.” Lilac said.
“It doesn’t matter, Li! He got away with it!” Nick said. “He’s gotten away from the police again, he killed Uncle Monty, and we never even…” he shut his eyes. “We never even got to say goodbye.”
“Nick…” Lilac began.
“Wait.” Klaus knelt by the trapdoor. “Wait, do you see that?”
“A way to get it open?” Lilac asked.
“A weapon?” Violet asked.
“Snake?” Solitude asked.
Klaus shook his head, reaching down towards the dirt caked onto the top of the trapdoor. He used his sleeve to push away some of it, and as he did, they saw the faint outline of the Eye, etched into the lid.
“That thing is everywhere.” Lilac noted.
“Yeah.” Klaus said. “It’s on this door, the hedgemaze itself, Count Olaf’s ankle… and the spyglass.” Slowly, he pulled the cylinder from his pocket, showing his siblings.
“It’s half a spyglass.” Nick explained. “Monty had one, in one of the pictures in the Reptile Room.”
“Why would Mother and Father have a spyglass?” Violet asked.
“How should we know?” Klaus asked.
“Well, we’re just going to have to find out.” Lilac said. “I don’t know what this is all about, but that Eye is connected to something, so I have a feeling it’ll keep following us. We can’t just ignore it. Not anymore.”
They all nodded slowly, and then Nick said, “We… we better get back to the house.”
“Anyone remember the way out of the maze?” Violet asked.
They were all silent.
“Okay,” Nick said, “I’m going to throw Soli into the air, she’ll get a bird’s-eye view-”
“You are absolutely not doing that.” Lilac said.
“Spoilsport.”
By the time the children found their way out, there were two vans parked outside of Monty’s house, and they froze in shock as they saw a cage being loaded into one. Lilac, who’d taken Sunny from Klaus after his arms started getting tired, ran up to Poe, asking, “What’s going on?”
“Ah! Lilac, there you are.” Poe said. “You really shouldn’t have wandered off.”
“Are those Uncle Monty’s reptiles?” Klaus asked, and Soli let out a startled cry as she recognized a lizard being carried by a man in a uniform.
“Yes,” Poe said, “Since Dr Montgomery is dead, they’re orphans now, so I called some of the other members of the Herpetological Society to take them to some new owner who hopefully won’t die on them. Unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to collect them all up, as a lot of them got out of their enclosures.”
“No!” Solitude shouted.
“What my sister means,” Violet said, “Is that’s Uncle Monty’s collection, you can’t just send the animals away!”
“Well, I don’t see what use they’d be to Dr Montgomery now.” Poe said. “Now, children, I believe I’ll be able to get you to a new guardian soon, your Aunt Josephine should be next on the list.”
“We don’t want to go to another relative we’ve never met!” Nick said. “And we don’t want Dr Montgomery’s collection-”
“I’m sorry,” Lilac interrupted, her eyes distant, “Did you say Aunt Josephine?”
Her siblings glanced at her in confusion, as Poe said, “Yes, she’s your next guardian, so long as she’s alright with me dropping you off soon. I would hate to miss more work.”
“Lilac?” Violet asked, watching as Solitude tried to squirm out of Nick’s arms to reach a cage that was being carried by. “Do we know an Aunt Josephine?”
“I…” Lilac shut her eyes. “I think I vaguely remember the name.”
“Josephine Anwhistle.” Poe said.
Lilac considered. “Yeah. Auntie Josephine. Fierce Auntie Josephine.”
“We have an Aunt Josephine?” Klaus asked.
“Yeah.” Lilac said. “I… it must’ve been before you boys were born, but I do remember someone saying ‘Fierce Auntie Josephine’... I must’ve met her when I was young.”
“Well,” Poe said, “Now that’s settled, we might as well leave.”
“No! Snakes!” Solitude shrieked, still trying to leave Nick. “Snakes!”
“Ink?” Sunny asked, peering around the cages, trying to spot her best friend.
“Can’t we say goodbye?” Nick asked.
“Children, I imagine you’d never want to see a snake again!”
“But-”
“Please grab your stuff.” Poe said. “I called a taxi, and a mechanic will come to fix my car while I drop you off at home.”
Hesitantly, Lilac nodded. “Alright, guys. Let’s get our stuff.”
“Snake?” Solitude asked pitifully. “Froggy? Croc?”
“We’ll pack up some of Uncle Monty’s books. How’s that, Soli?” Nick asked. “I think I have room in my suitcase.”
“Snake!” Solitude said sadly.
“It’s okay, Soli,” Lilac said, “They’re all going to nice places.”
Still, Solitude quietly cried as they fetched their suitcases, and as they walked into the Reptile Room, watching men in uniforms carry out cages and pick up snakes and lizards from the ground.
Nick placed Soli onto the floor as he started shoving books into his suitcase, trying his best to fill it up, and she wandered around the room, crouching by the corner a moment as the screeching iguana was carried away over her head. When he finally picked her up, she cried a bit quieter, putting her head on his shoulder and keeping her hands in her pockets.
The six children crowded into a taxi that pulled up, with Violet and Lilac squeezing themselves by the windows, and Solitude leaning up against Nick, humming a little to herself. Klaus played with his spyglass for a while as Poe prattled on about something, and Sunny crawled from her brother’s lap to Violet’s, staring out the window.
As they pulled out of the driveway, her face lit up, and she pointed out the window, cheering, “Ink!”
They all peered over her shoulder, seeing that the Incredibly Deadly Viper was slinking away in the grass, heading towards the hedge maze.
“Bye, Ink!” Sunny called. “Amo! Mox!” This meant, “I love you! I hope to see you soon!”
And the siblings watched as the snake peered towards them, and raised its tail in a wave.
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