Chapter Five

'Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye'

Lazlo swung from tree to tree, getting even closer and closer to Prickly Pines, which is currently under siege by an unknown robot. Lazlo had no idea what this machine was or what it could do, but he figured that with his newfound spider powers; he could beat it in no time.

'And roped me in
So, mesmerizing, so hypnotizing,
I am captivated, I am'

At last, Lazlo reached the small rural town. It was far worse then he imagined: Cars wrecked in various places, people in either a state of fear or shock, and much damage to the surrounding buildings. What caught Lazlo’s attention first was a man trapped inside of his car. “Well, time to show them what I can do.” Lazlo thought to himself.

'Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself'

Lazlo sung down to the car and tried to open the door, there was no way he could open it. He had no choice: he grabbed it with both hands and ripped it off of the vehicle! The man looked at him in complete shock, but he then understood what to do. The man jumped out of the car and fled the area.

Lazlo then turned around to the voice of a screaming woman. “Someone please help, my baby is trapped in that building!” Lazlo looked at the building and saw that she was right. The baby was there, unharmed, but behind several crooked and iron shelves. He jumped in there and moved the shelves out of the way, being careful about not hitting the baby. Once the shelves were out of the way, he picked up the crying baby with care and brought him back to his mother. “Oh thank you… whoever you are.”

'So clear
Like the diamond in your ring
Cut to mirror your intention
Oversized and overwhelmed
The shine of which has caught my eye
And rendered me
So isolated, so motivated
I am certain now that I am'

Lazlo turned and saw a bus crashed into a light pole, and the people inside of it couldn’t get out. He swung over there and yanked the door off. “Alright everyone, get out now!” Lazlo yelled. Many of the people inside did so, except for one woman. “My leg! I think it’s broken!”

Lazlo had no clue how to treat a broken leg; he was a camper, not a doctor. Behind Lazlo was an ambulance, surely the paramedics could get her to a hospital. Lazlo got over to the woman, carefully grabbed her and helped her over to the ambulance. After leaving her with the paramedics. He swung back out, following the trail of destruction.

“I’ve got to stop this robot before it hurts anyone else. And I’ve got to get Patsy away from it!” Lazlo thought.

'Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself'

At long last he found the robot; it was on the top of the tallest tower in Prickly Pines. Up there was the robot and Patsy tied up to a pole. Lazlo landed in front of it and froze; it was no ordinary robot, it was Patsy’s robot from the science fair: The Southpaw Boxing Partner 3000!

The robot saw Lazlo and swung its metallic fist at him. Lazlo dodged it with incredible agility, thus causing the robot to continue its punches and attacks, all which were dodged, but barely. Lazlo then saw an opening and punched the robot in the mid-arm. Its armor got dented but that didn’t stop it from back-handing Lazlo. Lazlo flew into the wall with tremendous force.

'So turn
up the corners of your lips
Part them and feel my finger tips
Trace the moment fall forever'

“Ugh. OK, that’s gonna leave a mark…” Lazlo said as he staggered out of the crater in the wall. He looked ahead and saw the robot charging him. Lazlo took action: he shot two webs (One in each hand) up at a small ceiling above him and yanked himself upward. Just in time too, the robot ran right underneath him.

Right where Lazlo wanted it.

'Defense is paper thin
Just one touch and I'll be in
Too deep now to ever swim against the current'

Lazlo slammed the heel of his foot into the back of the robots head and it in turn slammed into the floor. Lazlo heard the robot slowly shut down, he must have hit its control box in its head.

However, Patsy (who was busy freeing herself from the rope with a Swiss Army knife) stumbled when the robot hit the floor, and she fell off!

'So let me slip away'

Lazlo heard Patsy scream. He turned around, saw Patsy falling and jumped off the roof, diving down to her.

'So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away'

Lazlo dove down to Patsy, when he finally got within grabbing reach, he pulled her up into his arms.

'So let me slip against the current'

Lazlo turned his body, shot out his arm toward the tower, while holding on to Patsy with his other arm, and shot a web at the tower.

'So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away'

The web connected with the tower, and it stopped their fall, just two feet from the ground.

'Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself'

Lazlo let go of the web, landed on the ground, and let Patsy go. Lazlo and Patsy saw the other Squirrel Scouts, and several Prickly Pines residents, approach them. After about two second, they all slowly started to clap and cheer for their masked hero.

“Oh thank you so much, masked stranger!” Patsy said as she hugged the disguised Lazlo. Lazlo then said back to her, along to everyone else, “It’s uh, no problem at all. I’m just doing what super heroes do.”

Gretchen, the alligator Squirrel Scout, while she was happy that Patsy was safe, smugly said, “Aren’t you a little short to be a super hero?”

Lazlo replied, as Patsy let go of him, “It doesn’t matter what size you are, anyone can be a hero. Does anyone have any idea why the robot attacked Prickly Pines and kidnapped this lovely lady here?” Patsy cheeks turned red after hearing this masked hero call her “lovely lady.”

Nina spoke, “I can explain that. You see, I helped Patsy build this robot for a recent science fair. We put a computer chip in it so it would adapt to whatever situation it was in. But there were some complications today and…”

“It got smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders.” Lazlo concluded.

Nina nodded her head and said, “Exactly.”

Lazlo then asked, “Aren’t either of you afraid the town will blame you two for all of this then?”

“I don’t think so,” Patsy replied, “the company that sold us the chip said there wouldn’t be any malfunctions with it. So they’ll be the ones with the blame and not us.”

Lazlo gave a sigh of relief and said, “Good, I sure would hate to see a fine camp like Acorn Flats be shut down.”

The Squirrel Scouts all blushed and giggled at what he said. To them, he may very well be a cute guy under that mask.

Lazlo then said, “Well, I had better be going then…” Just as he was about to swing away into the forest, something grabbed his arm. He turned around and saw that it was Patsy.

“Wait, before you go we all just want to know something. Who are you?”

Lazlo paused for a second, thinking of an answer, finally he said, “You know, I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider Monkey!”

With that, he shot a web out at a tree branch and off he went into the woods, as Spider Monkey: the new hero of Prickly Pines, Camp Kidney, and Acorn Flats.

'Like hope
dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption...'