The Guardian

The Guardian is the eleventh chapter in the Wombles Two.

Muddled Uncle Bulgaria had gotten so caught up in everything that he had no idea what was going on anymore. “I am in no state to protect the jewels!” he muttered to himself. “Perhaps we need a guardian.”  They did get a guardian, and gave them some power from the Existence Jewel so that they could fight off any intruders, but they did not tell anyone who it was. All they told them was that they had a new guardian for the Existence Jewel. They didn’t say anything else, just in case there was a traitor among them. But luckily there wasn’t.

“What?” snapped Cathy after hearing that there was a guardian. “It appears me and Steed have another person to kill.”  And, this is cheating a bit, but I can tell you who the guardian was. It was Mrs Peel!

Mrs Peel was very pleased to guard the Jewel. She was humming a tune. “Da-da da-da da da-da-da”  She had heard that tune somewhere but couldn’t remember where. Back at TODE ESP was frustrated. “Why is she alive!” she shouted. “Why doesn’t Steed obey us!” shouted GGGGGGGGGGGUS. “Why is Peter Peel alive?” asked SCS. Long Since Forgotten Steed answered their questions. “Mrs Peel is alive because Steed won’t obey us. That is because he keeps playing the Avengers theme in his head. Peter is alive because Dr Keel is rubbish. He is dead instead!”. “Oh” said the others. “Well then” said GGGGGGGGGGGUS “Why not have Mrs Peel kill Tara?”  They opened Mrs Peel’s file and found her mind closed. She had the Avengers tune in her head as well!

“In that case,” said ESP. “Why not the other way round?”  So they made Tara have a dream in which she was told to kill Mrs Peel. But although Tara did go round looking for her, she couldn’t find her anywhere, as she had no idea that the room with the jewels even existed.

Cathy walked into the burrow. “Stop right there!” said Orinoco. “Otherwise I will…*yawn*… have forty winks.”  And he fell asleep. Cathy laughed slightly evily and slightly as if she had seen something funny. As the other wombles tried to stop her, she hit them and there was a purple flash each time. Finally she walked into the room with the jewels. Mrs Peel spun round on a big chair, rather enjoying herself. “Good evening Mrs Mother. I have been expecting you.” She said. And she made a green flash appear, and it began to push Cathy back, but then she used her purple flash, and Mrs Peel was thrown off her chair. Cathy laughed evily. “I think you’ve forgotten,” she said. “That as well as you having the power of the Existence Jewel, I have the power of the Protection jewel.”  Mrs Peel struggled back up and lunged the green flash at Cathy again. Cathy dodged with the purple flash and made Mrs Peel weaker again. This was not looking good!

With all her strength Mrs Peel fired a beam of green light at Cathy. Cathy expected it sent a purple beam right back. The two beams just blocked each other for a while then it mixed together. It was blue now.

Steed was gazing at the Protection Jewel wondering when Cathy would bring back the Existence Jewel. Suddenly it vanished!

Mrs Peel and Cathy fell to the floor. They both made a dash for the green Existence Jewel but it wasn’t there. Now there a blue jewel twice the size. Cathy grinned and said “One jewel, no more wombles!”

She tried to take it. Mrs Peel used karate on her. Cathy used Judo on her. Eventually Cathy managed to throw Mrs Peel on the floor. She walked towards the big blue jewel. Mrs Peel wriggled along the floor and grabbed her leg. Cathy made her let go and carried on walking towards the jewel. The door suddenly flew open. Two Steeds walked in. Neither Mrs Peel or Cathy were sure which was the real one. That is, until one of them walked up to Cathy and punched her. “Get off of me, Joe!” she said. Joe carried on and hit her like a cybernaut. She fell to the floor unconscious. He carried her off and put her on her own conveyer belt with the circular saw. Joe and Mrs Peel watched as the conveyer belt moved slowly. Cathy used AEIOU to get out. She also muttered, “Why am I using something that’s for idiots?”  But escaped by using it anyway. She ran off back home and locked the door. The real Steed had gone back there by now. “Hello my dear!” he said, “Did you escape using the AEIOU I taught you?”  “Yes.” Replied Cathy. “But I am NOT an idiot.”  “Bear in mind,” said Steed. “It’s for idiots OR unlucky agents.”  “I’m not an agent anymore!” snapped Cathy. “So it kind of suggested that I was an idiot!”

GGGGGGGGGGGUS and his fellow todies were inside Tara’s head. She was looking for Mrs Peel was a bit hard to find. Tara had gone all around London and was now heading to old womble burrow. Mrs Peel was in there looking for unstuffing formula. “It has to be here somewhere!” she shouted. “What does?” asked Peter. “Unstuffing formula” she replied. “Why do you want it?” asked Peter. “For David” she replied. “I HATE THEM ALL! I HATE AVENGERS! SO DO YOU!” Peter shouted. “Well I suppose so” she said but Mrs Peel wasn’t sure at all. She was starting to realise that whatever happened Peter seemed to be evil. Also she was missing Steed so decided to find him.

Just as she got outside Tara blocked her way. She looked like she was sleep walking. “Kill Mrs Peel” she said. “No” said Mrs Peel and tossed her into the old burrow. Peter promptly stuffed her and put her in the cabinet that had been waiting for the purpose.

ESP suddenly feinted. Long Since Forgotten Steed looked annoyed. “Gus” he said to GGGGGGGGGGGUS. “Yes I know!” he replied. “Try Cathy and Steed again but first we must sleep to recharge our physic energy.”

Mrs Peel knocked on Steed’s door. There was no reply. She peeked inside but there was no one there. She tried Dr King’s house. Just Dr King. She tried Cathy’s house. As soon as she rang the bell, Steed answered it? “Oh you.” He said. “Come to kill me?”  “No.” said Mrs Peel. “I’ve decided to be Mrs Steed again.”  “Well I’ve decided,” said Steed. “That you’re not.”  And he slammed the door at her. She stood there and stared then felt a tear roll down her cheek. She walked slowly back home.

“Who was it?” asked Cathy, who hadn’t been watching, but writing the long list of Avengers to kill. “Mrs Peel.” Replied Steed. “Oh.” Said Cathy. “What did she want?”  “To be Mrs Steed again.”  Cathy looked up for a moment. Steed giggled and said, “I said no.”  Cathy went back to writing and pretended that she had been the whole time.

The Wombatmobile stopped behind a large clump of bushes. Yellowstone, Alderney, Bungo and Rover got out. They moved like shadows across the rather wild garden. It was like a tangled jungle with shadows looking like snakes at every turn. They finally reached the big old Victorian house. “We go in through there” whispered Yellowstone. The three wombles climbed up the thick ivy to a broken window. Rover rolled up the wall but Bungo stopped him going in. “No Rover come for us if we don’t come out but make sure nobody leaves the house!”  Rover was sad as he really loved Bungo but he did as he was asked. Rover remembered when Bungo had first taught him to play by throwing him dogs to catch. He shook himself and got his mind on the job. He just couldn’t let the wombles down!

Inside ESP had woken up. “There are wombles here!” she  said. “And something else” said Gus. “Something dangerous!” said Long Since Forgotten Steed. “I see it!” said Second Cousin Steed. An image of Rover drifted out of his head into the darkened room. Just around the corner the three wombles waited in the darkness looking in fear at the power before them.

Joe walked into the old burrow and knocked Peter to the floor. He unstuffed Tara. “Kill Mrs Peel!” she said. “What?” said Joe, and was about to stuff her again, but she had already gone.

Tara found Mrs Peel. “Kill Mrs Peel!” she said. Mrs Peel started to run away. Tara chased her all the way to the top of a cliff. Mrs Peel screamed, tripped, and fell. Immediately as Mrs Peel reached the bottom, Tara blinked and returned to normal? “What am I doing here?” she asked herself. She looked over the edge. “Aagh! Is that Mrs Peel?” she screamed. Gus came up behind her. “Who are you?” asked Tara. “Steed’s Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Uncle Steed.” Replied Gus. “Thanks for killing her for me.”  “What?” asked Tara in a scared voice. “I just got away from being killed myself.” Continued Gus. “By three wombles and a scary white ball thing. But we’ve got them all captured now. And guess what? It wasn’t us who captured them. Steed came and lent us a hand.”  Tara was confused. She ran away but Gus didn’t chase her. He let her go back to her car that she didn’t like very much.

Cathy was waiting for Steed to come back. Suddenly her doorbell rang. “That must be him now.” She said. And when she opened the door, she was right. He was holding a newspaper. He gave it to her. The headline was, Mrs Emma Peel pushed off a cliff. “Did you do it my dear?” he asked. “No.” replied Cathy. “Surely it was you.”  “No.” replied Steed and scratched his head. “Perhaps it was…” began Cathy, and scratched her head too. “Perhaps it was… um… I have no idea who it could’ve been.” The doorbell rang again. It was Steed again. Cathy looked at Steed and then at Steed. The Steed that had just come in punched Cathy. “Ow!” said Cathy. “Not you again, Joe! By the way, do you know who killed Mrs Peel?”  “Yes!” said Joe. “It was Tara.”  “What?” asked Cathy.

“You are all helping TODE!” said Joe. “They are making you and the wombles evil!” he continued. “How do you know that?” asked Steed. “Because they created me to kill you Steed.” He replied. “Why should I trust you then?” Steed asked. “I am your brother Steed!” Joe said passionately. “Oh yes I forgot about that.” Said Steed. “Huh?” said Cathy confused. “Another time perhaps! For now though everybody has to be freed because they aren’t evil, it’s TODE!” urged Steed.