Here is a short story I wrote for school:

The raccoon ran down a back alley, pursuing the opossum ahead of him. It swerved and darted down another alley branching to the side. By the time the raccoon reached the alley, the opossum was gone, leaving no trace but the innocent manhole cover sitting on the ground. The raccoon grunted and sniffed the air. No scent. He snarled and stalked off, his heavy tail trailing behind.

The opossum slunk down a dimly lit corridor, checking behind him to make sure he had lost his pursuer. He arrived at a round doorway with a keypad beside it. He tapped in a code and the door clunked open.

  Inside was a large room, bustling with opossums at work, screwing in plates of metal, hammering on hot steel, and welding bars of iron with clunky masks over their heads. The opossum concerned, whose name was Alfonse, strolled through the room, nodding to his friends as he went. 

Alfonse went down more, smaller halls and arrived at another door, this one had a small black pad. A fingerprint scanner. Alfonse checked his fingerprint and inside, he found who he was looking for. A short, stubby opossum slouched in a chair, looking at paperwork on his desk. The room was piled full of papers and books. Alfonse walked to the desk.

“Hello, Sargent. Agent Alfonse, reporting for duty!”

The short opossum grunted. “Greetings, Alfonse. Did you get the loot?”

Alfonse took off the pack strapped to his back. He unzipped it and produced a thick battery with large silver writing on the side. It read

 ‘Warning, flammable, use with extreme caution.’

Sargent grinned.

“Ah! There it is, an admirable job, Agent A. Did the RBS see you?”

“Yes, sir, but i escaped. It was only one, Agent Maroon if I remember correctly. He chased me for a bit, and I fled down entrance B, the oaf was fool enough to overlook the entrance altogether.”

“Ha. Those dirty fiends can’t track us a mile!”

Alfonse laughed and glanced down at the OCL embroidered on his uniform.

“It’s all due to your excellent leading, Sargent. The OCL is certainly outdoing the RBS.”

The OCL, Opossum City League, was an organization of opossums, scouting out the city of New York, under which they lived. Their headquarters were large and roomy, home to many opossums. Alfonse was a top spy, tasked with the most difficult missions. The RBS, Raccoon Brigand Society, was a group of nasty raccoons, outlaws, who were trying to outwit the OCL and bring down New York City itself.

Just then another opossum barged into the room. He was wearing a uniform like Alfonse’s and had a wild air about him as he bolted up to the desk. 

“Sargent, sir! Clarence reporting, sir! The RBS has breached the first defense of the lab sir! Our scouts are working on it from the other side, but the RBS beat us to it!”

He panted for breath, and waited for Sargent to reply.

“Hmph! Those fools have breached the first defense already, have they? Oh well, they won’t get to the prize first. It’s only the first one after all, and for all we know there could be hundreds. Tell the scouts to increase their efforts, and send reinforcements.”

Clarence nodded and went to a wide, funnel-like tube in the wall.

“Attention, opossums! We need reinforcements at the lab. Send Squad D and tell the scouts to double their efforts!”

Alfonse look at Sargent with a worried expression.

“Sir, is there really cause to worry? I thought we were ahead.”

Sargent sighed and glanced at the papers on his desk, shaking his head mournfully. 

“Well, Alfonse…I believe there is. That chemical is extremely powerful. If it fell into the wrong hands, it wouldn’t be pretty. However, if we get it, our organization will prosper like no other! We would be able to discover new technology and such. We must reach that chemical first. If we don’t, all will be lost.”

Clarence, who had overheard, went to Alfonse’s side. He was a top spy as well, and was often sent on missions with Alfonse. Clarence looked unusually solemn.

“Grave news, huh? Perhaps, Sargent, we could call Professor Hamilton. He might have ideas. How about a meeting tomorrow. I’ll call the Professor.”

The fat raccoon was back at the RBS HQ. The hidden entrance was a trash can behind a restaurant. It was a clever disguise, but the OCL had already found it out. The raccoon entered his base. There was no keypads or fingerprint scanners, but only two guards with sharp, pointy spears. 

“Whats the password?” The guards said in perfect unison.

The fat raccoon looked uncomfortable. 

“Uh, errr…oh heck. Can’t you tell I’m Agent Maroon? Just lemme in.”

The guard on the right started to protest, but the on on the left butted in. “Oh be quiet, Ron. Let em’ through.”

  Agent Maroon stumbled through the door and met face to face with a wiry raccoon. It had black fur, greasy whiskers, and a very unpleasant expression. “Oh hello there, Maroon. I see you finally got back. Where is that Alfonse fellow? I told you to retrieve him!”

Agent Maroon looked uncomfortable, then brightened.

“Well, sir, he kinda escaped…but our scouts got through the first of those blasted defenses! And those opossums are still on the first.”

The wiry raccoon sucked in his breath and grinned a wicked grin. He patted Maroon on the shoulder, who winced at the touch and looked down. Even Agent Maroon, one of the most evil raccoons, didn’t want to see that horrid toothless grin.

“Well, sire, I believe the raccoons are simply using brute force to penetrate the defenses…I cannot understand how my genius ideas are failing! I have been researching and using the most complex and latest methods! It’s shameful how those RBS agents are ahead.”

Professor Hamilton pushed up his spectacles and clenched his fists, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Clarence chuckled and stood up from his chair.

“I have a proposition, sir. If the raccoons are getting through using as you say, brute force, then why don’t we?” 

The Professor looked insulted. He polished his glasses nervously and frowned. Sargent sighed. “Good idea, Clarence,” he turned to Hamilton, “let’s try it, shall we? I understand you don’t like to think we are copying the RBS, neither do I, but it is practical.”

Professor Hamilton started up, “The lab we are trying to get into in large and high tech. We already know they have many defenses guarding that chemical, so I’m assuming the lab owners are smart. If they are intelligent, they would make all their defenses different. What I mean is if this first one requires force, the next could be a puzzle requiring brains, and the next might require more scientific methods. I agree that we should force our way through this one.”

In New York, there was a high tech lab that posessed the chemical. The lab owners new its power and set up many different walls and doors leading to it, each with a different puzzle or way to get past. Apparently, they trusted their defenses, as they had recently left for one reason or another. The OCL and the RBS had seized the opportunity, and were stationed one of each side of the chemical room, working as fast as they could on the walls. The first wall had taken the RBS a few weeks to penetrate, and the OCL was still working. And everyone expected the puzzles to get even harder the closer they got to the prize. They were right.

Alfonse, Sargent, and Clarence nodded at Hamilton’s words. Sargent looked soberly at Clarence and Alfonse. 

“Agents?” 

Alfonse, who had been gazing at the wall, startled to attention, and Clarence, who had been picking at his nails, did the same.

“You guys are going on a mission. I will send you together to scout out the lab. Try to get in, look at the premises and report back. We need as much information as we can get. You leave in two days.”

Clarence looked at Alfonse. Alfonse grimaced, making Clarence laugh. Sargent chuckled as well.

“I know you can handle it. Come on! You know i trust you!”

“Okay,” said Alfonse, “but right now I need supper. May I be dismissed, Sargent?”

  Sargent dismissed them, and the two spies went to the dining hall for supper.

“Hush. They’ll hear you!” Alfonse, ever the studious one, frowned at Clarence, who proceeded to dance a horn pipe on the roof of the lab. Alfonse rolled his eyes dramatically and went silently to the edge of the roof. He peered over the edge. Three stories below him, a group of raccoons were making their way through the first wall. On the other side, the OCL was doing the same. They had caught up to the raccoons without difficulty.

“Clarence, we need to get down there. Let’s take a look at the second wall, we might be able to help.”

They crept to the opposite edge, where they could see the opossums inspecting the wall with puzzled faces. Clarence took a rope from his belt. A long metal hook was tied to the end. He hooked it over the edge of the roof and gave it a tug. It held. He jumped off the roof, sliding down the rope to the concrete below. Alfonse followed, and they reached the others quickly.

The opossum scouts greeted them, making room for Alfonse and Clarence as they went towards the door. It was a tall, rectangle door, thick and heavy. A series of switches and levers, each with a different number below them, were arranged on the door. Alfonse studied them.

“Looks like a puzzle…” he inspected the numbers. They seemed to be arranged randomly.

“The numbers go from one to ten. There are five yellow and five blue. Wish we had the Professor here -I’m not one for puzzles…” Clarence shrugged and flipped the switch with the number one beneath. Nothing happened. Alfonse tried flipping one, two, and three at the same time. Something in the door shifted. One of the scouts tried flipping the odd numbers while Alfonse flipped the even ones, but nothing happed. 

Clarence pondered the puzzle, and flipped four, five, and six. The door slid open a tiny crack. Clarence beamed proudly. It was easy from there. The scouts and the spies took turns flipping the corresponding switches, until the door was open wide enough to fit through. They all high- fives and cheered. Just then, a patter of running footsteps was heard growing quieter. Clarence whipped around just in time to see a raccoon running away from them, around the lab. He snarled and glared at the retreating figure. Alfonse saw it too.

“The sodden-witted fool. He watched the whole thing! Now he’ll report to the raccoons and they’ll get through. We need to be more careful next time.”

“Hmph! You’re right. Post a few scouts at the edges of the building. If you see anyone coming, drive them away. We can’t risk them watching our techniques. I suppose this’ll teach us to be more cautious.”

Two groups of scouts detached from the main huddle and stood by the corners of the building. Alfonse posted a group behind as well, for good measure. 

The group then turned their attention back to the next wall. The third. A complex grid of lights was arranged. Next to each was a button. They tried pressing them. Each light lit up as the buttons were pressed. One lit up green, another purple. At last, they got through by pressing the buttons to light up in rainbow order. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. This time, no raccoons saw them do it, and Alfonse and Clarence proceeded onward. 

This door was small and round. None of the men there could have fitted through. As there were no buttons or levers, they busted the hatch open with their hammers, and looked through curiously. On the opposite wall, to the side, was a lever, which would presumably open the door; but none of them could fit through to reach it.

“My Junior would be able to fit!” Said one opossum with a large bowler hat. “I’ll bring em’ over tomorrow.” As no more work could be done without Junior, The party returned home, after closing off the site. None of the tired opossums bothered to look up as they left. If they had, they would have seen a pair of gleaming eyes staring from the rooftop…

The next day, the OCL woke up to turmoil and chaos. Alfonse and Clarence ran out to the work hall, where a raccoon was pointing a gun at Professor Hamilton. The Professor had his paws up, and a terrified look on his face, his glasses askew. The other opossums were trapped in a corner, a wriggling heap under a giant, tangled net. Alfonse looked at Clarence in alarm, but he was already sneaking up behind the raccoon. Alfonse nodded at Clarence and stepped forward. He needed to distract the raccoon.

“Hello there, Mr. Rag bag!” Alfonse smiled welcomingly and glanced dramatically at the raccoons dirty pelt and uniform. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here! What a nice surprise. I see you got the better of our dear Professor!” he laughed nonchalantly and patted the raccoon on the shoulder.

“Stop that, or the fat one goes.” The raccoon snarled and gestured towards the tubby Professor.

“Excuse me!” The Professor started to protest, for his weight was his weak point, but the raccoon pressed the mouth of the gun to huis chest and made a dramatic slashing motion across his throat. Professor Hamilton gulped and stood stock-still. Just then, Clarence pounced. He caught the raccoon in a diving roll and was on top of him in a minute. Alfonse sprang forward, cutting Hamilton’s bonds and ushering him out. They tied up the raccoon, twisted the gun away from him, and left him in the middle of the room, where he could not escape. Meanwhile, they cut the net open and the workers poured out, muttering thanks towards the spies and insults for the intruder. 

The raccoon was taken to the dungeon, where he was guarded by electrocuting walls, and an opossum with a gun. The opossums believed they had defeated whatever the raccoons purpose was, but then the opossum from last night rushed in the room and grasped Alfonse by the shoulders.

“Junior!” He cried wildly, “Junior is gone! And Mildred. Oh, Mildred, my dear wife! And Junior! My only son!” The man began to go into hysterics, and Clarence patted him gingerly on the back. Alfonse looked concerned.

“Have you searched? Are you sure he’s not just wandered off?”

“No!” The worried father wailed, “He was kidnapped by a raccoon! I tried to stop him, but he killed my poor dear Mildred too! I was trying to save her when- when- he…! Oh! I can’t stand it!”  

Clarence straightened

“They must have heard us last night. Junior is the only way for us to get past that wall. We’re losing time. Alfonse, let’s go. Sir, we will have arrangements for your wife. We will all mount for her. She was an excellent woman, and we will miss her from the league.”

Clarence gave the poor man a hug, Alfonse offered a handkerchief, and sent a message to Sargent, and they left for the RBS base. 

Alfonse’s and Clarence were above ground now. They slunk their way to Ricardo’s Mexican Restaurant and went to the trash can in the alley behind. 

“I have a bad feeling about this…I wish there was another way in.” Alfonse frowned at the trash can. 

“Oh, calm down, Alf.” Clarence patted him on the back, “We’ll get the kid and be back out in no time.”

Alfonse nodded, but held back. Clarence dumped his backpack on the ground, covered it with an old greasy takeout box, and dove in the trash can. Alfonse followed, dumping his pack by an old cardboard box.

The inside of the RBS base was small and cramped. Dirt was caked along the sides of the tunnels, home to worms and maggots. Alfonse wrinkled his nose and was thankful he was not a raccoon. Up ahead, a raccoon was standing guard next to a gate. He held a spear and was slumped against the wall, asleep. Alfonse and Clarence crept past on their tippy toes and Clarence snatched the key ring from the guard’s belt. They unlocked the gate, and snuck into the next room. It was a large square room made of packed dirt, with wires and tubes sticking out in random spots. On the far side of the room, two raccoons were looking at a paper intently. The gate was in in front of them, unable to reach without being seen. Alfonse cursed under his breath and took a heavy metal pipe from the pole of junk near them. Clarence followed suit, and, creeping up to the raccoons, they each clobbered one over the heads and scrambled out the second door. 

Here, there was another door with raccoon sleeping beside it.

“Seems like the RBS better hire more energetic guards next time!” Clarence whispered loudly. Alfonse clamped a paw over his mouth, but it was too late. The guard sprang to life, swung his spear towards Alfonse, and ran at him, yelling as he went,

“Intruder!”

Alfonse quickly stepped aside and Clarence piped the guard, but more were coming, lured by the alert. They weren’t armed, but that didn’t change much. The raccoons fell upon the OCL spies, burying them in a heap of angry raccoons. They punched and kicked, often hitting their teammates in the confusion, instead of the opossums. Clarence and Alfonse wriggled out with difficulty. Clarence began to swing his pipe furiously, knocking raccoons left and right. Alfonse proceeded to duel with a raccoon, after grabbing the guard’s spear. The two opossums held up stoutly for a while, but soon, the sheer numbers of the enemy forces were too strong. Clarence had a wounded leg and Alfonse’s head ached like fury, due to a blow from a wild wrestling raccoon. At last, they could stand no longer. They were surrounded in every direction. Every direction, that is, except up. Clarence whipped out his grappling hook and shot at the tubes and piping above them. The hook latched to a tube and Clarence grabbed Alfonse.

They flew upwards, away from the raging raccoons, and climbed onto a big pipe.

“That was rough…” Alfonse rubbed his aching head.

“Yeah, no kidding!” Clarence chuckled and looked around him. “We should have competed up here in the first place.” 

It was true. They were in a very convenient place. They could explore the building without worrying about raccoons. They could easily climb along the pipes and find the room in which Junior was kept. They rested for a bit, recovering their spirits and nursing there injuries. 

At last, after crawling all over the base, they reached a room with a small cage in it. It was suspended by a chain, and inside was an adorable baby opossum. Four guards were stationed around it, each wide awake and ready. Alfonse looked at Clarence, who was making a face at one of the guards. 

“Let’s knock out the guards from here. Then we’ll climb the chain and get the kid.” Clarence nodded. He took out his long-range taser. Alfonse followed suit, and they each took out two guards. Alfonse stood guard, while Clarence clambered down the chain, unlocked the cage, and took out the little joey. Junior squeaked and cuddled in closer to Clarence, trembling visibly. Clarence muttered comforting words to the baby as he climbed single-handedly up the chain.

Junior toddled through the hole and hung on the lever to pull it down, the gate slid open and the passle applauded politely. The next door resembled that of an iron gate. Alfonse went to Junior to see if he would fit through the bars, but Junior evidently had his own plans. He made straight for a shiny beetle sitting placidly on the ground before the gate. He bit down on it with his little sharp teeth. To Junior’s astonishment, the beetle, which was fake, rose up on a tiny metal pole and turned in a circle. The gate swung open. The opossums gaped at Junior. Clarence laughed with glee and slapped Junior on the back a bit to forcefully. Junior was sent flying through the air into his proud papa’s arms, who caught him and proceeded to sing his son’s praises till Alfonse made him stop. 

Junior was back, and the OCL were through the fourth gate. They soon made progress, and unlocked the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth doors. However, scouts reported that the RBS was catching up, and, not knowing how many walls there were, the OCL worked extra hard to get through before the raccoons.

At last, the eleventh gate was opened. As it swung open, Alfonse and Clarence gasped, along with the rest of the group. The gate opened to a large room, with a giant glass box in the middle. Around the box were laser walls, and in the box, was a small vial of orange fluid. The chemical. The opossums had gotten to the inside of the lab at last! And no raccoons in sight! 

Just then, a gate swung open on the other side of the room. A group of raccoons, with Agent maroon in the lead, stood there, mirroring the opossums surprise. Clarence sighed, But Alfonse yelled at the scouts.

“Come on! We have to get that chemical!”

The group sprang into action. They had planned what they would do in this scenario, but now that it was actually happening, the opossums were slower and more disorganized. Luckily, so were the raccoons, Alfonse whipped out his gun, Clarence unsheathed his pipe, and they charged. Clarence used his pipe to vault over the laser wall. He started to bang on the glass, while Alfonse shot at it. It didn’t break. It was very strong, reinforced glass. Clearly, they couldn’t break it. Alfonse motioned to Clarence, who nodded and stood inside the laser barricade, ready to whack any raccoons that dared to try and get over it. Alfonse ordered the scouts to search the room for buttons of levers that would activate the glass box. They followed orders, but the raccoons understood what they were doing, and did the same.

Soon, chaos ensued. Raccoons and opossums were fighting, punching, clobbering, shooting, dueling, and more. Some raccoons threw themselves on their victims, and pounded them, others flailed, in hopes of hitting someone. The opossums had more milder, sophisticated methods. They dueled with pipes, shot with guns, and used taekwondo to plow down their foes. Alfonse sighed, and looked to check on Clarence. 

He looked like he was struggling. Five raccoons were facing him at once, dodging his pipe swings and fighting back. Alfonse ran and leapt off the wall. He bounced and landed in the laser wall. He took the raccoons by surprise, from the back. Clarence nodded to him in thanks, and the two continued to fight, tiring not, but being energized by the action and chaos.

Suddenly, a baby opossum, Junior, was flung into Clarence’s arms. Clarence caught him and looked with surprise to where he had been thrown from. There was an opossum with a bowler hat, looking with tears in his eyes at Junior and Clarence. A raccoon had shot him in the chest, and the opossum was fast dying. Clarence yelled and Junior began to cry. The opossum looked wistfully at his son, and uttered his dying words. 

“Goodbye, Junior. Clarence will take care of you. Goodbye, goodbye!” His words faded away, and he closed his eyes. He was dead. Clarence had tears in his eyes when it happened. He looked at Junior with fond sadness and leapt onto the glass cube. He gently put the orphaned joey on top, where he would be save. Clarence gave him a large tasty beetle from his pack, and left him there. Clarence’s eyes burned with rage and sorrow. He searched vengefully for the raccoon who had murdered Junior’s father. There he was, beating up a small scout opossum. Clarence nearly flew, he was so powered by his rage. He sprinted to the raccoon, and, with one mighty blow of his pipe, he killed him. The tormented scout ran off, for medical assistance, and Clarence collapsed into the corner of the room, breathing heavily. The glass cube suddenly opened. Junior fell onto the glass vile and began to gnaw at the top. Clarence had sat on the button!

Alfonse, not knowing where Junior had come from, saw him chewing on the vile’s lid and gasped. He grabbed the vile and it’s passenger, and sprinted for the gate. He had the chemical, he needed to escape. The raccoons saw him and in one great effort, grouped together and washed towards Alfonse like a flood. He was enveloped in the raccoon huddle, and disappeared from sight. Clarence stood up. Three of the most important things to Clarence were at stake. The chemical, Alfonse, and Junior. He felt the power of anger return to him. How dare they kill Junior’s father! How dare they steal the chemical! How dare they hurt his friend! 

Clarence dashed to the group and swung his pipe with renewed strength. The raccoons flew to and fro through the air. At last he reached Alfonse and his baggage. He grabbed his paw and they ran to safety. Out, out of the lab into the cool night air.

It was a week after. The raccoons had left New York City. The OCL had the chemical, and they were busy tending to their wounded and sick. Clarence kept Junior and cared for him like his own son. Junior grew up into a fine fellow, and the OCL grew in technology with the use of the powerful chemical. They never saw the raccoons again, and lived happy lives, working and patrolling to keep the streets of New York City safe.