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"Picture It"

It was a beautiful summer afternoon, the clouds were in the sky, just barely blotting out the intense inferno of the summer sun. The perfect afternoon, which was made even more perfect by the laughter of a light hearted picnic held in Marshall's back yard. The sweet Pikachu was the eldest of the house guests that included her close friend Zang. A purple skunk friend of theirs named Primrose and a punkish Meowth named Ray. As Marshall hummed to herself, she tightened the pink ribbon she wore around her neck as she gathered up a tray of snacks for the younger guests and she swung from the kitchen refreshed with excitement and joy.

"Hey there, Zang could you please take this tray of snacks out to the kids outside?"

Zang raised an eyebrow at her. "Kids? They're teenagers, why do you have to go doting on them like some elementary school teacher?" The Zangoose yawned wide, scratching his white belly as he stretched his legs. "Your kids are off visiting their grandmother, I'm not sure why you have to worry about--"

"Welllll, Primrose was visiting Ray who lives just next door." Marshall explained. "It's really nothing for me to put on these little treats."

"Nnhmm." Zang said with a sigh through his nostrils.

"Besides, I've got to finish the cake to take out there. You've been cooped up in here all day, Zang. You need some exercise."

"Pff! Right. Like I'm going to buy that one."

"And besides, I'll let you have a big slice of the cake when it's ready." She grinned teasingly at him.

Licking his mouth, Zang quickly weighed his options and decided to roll off the couch. Taking the tray from Marshall he got up and strolled out the back door.

The air outside was perfect, not too hot, but not too humid either. A soft, cool breeze washed past the Zangoose's nose as he descended the three step porch onto the soft grass of the back yard, where he spotted Ray and Primrose sitting at the swingset conversing. Both of them gasped and looked at him, their ears and tails going fully erect as he approached the picnic table and placed the tray down.

"AHHHHAHAHAHA!" The two of them blasted across the yard so fast that there were trails of dust that followed their footsteps until they were practically throwing themselves away, devouring the sandwiches messily as Zang watched and rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Boy, you two are pretty messy with that, what're you going to do when Marshall brings out her--"

"Caaaaake!" Marshall announced in a sing-songy voice as she emerged from the back door, wielding a frosted plastic container on top of a shiny silvery tray. She smiled as the two young ones turned toward her with ravenous eyes and charged at her. She laughed and put a foot up to stop the faster Ray from pouncing her and knocking the tray from her hands. "Whoa! Whoa! Slow down! This cake has to cool before we can eat it!" She explained as the dish wobbled in her hand and she quickly stepped over them as she made her way into the yard. "But don't worry, I promise with it in the shade over here it should cool in only about ten minutes or so."

"Aw, ten minutes? That's like forever." The skunkette complained with a sigh.

The pikachu laughed a bit. "It'll be over before you know it." She said as she patted Zang on the shoulder and disappeared to stash the cake in the shade. She emerged a moment later and smiled. "There we go! Should be set to go in a few minutes, now I am going to freshen up and get a proper picnic blanket for us to really enjoy our desert. Zang, could you come with me for a moment?" She said as the two of them slowly entered the house.

Ray frowned and looked over the bushes. "So... what'dya suppose that cake is? Chocolate? Yellow cake?"

"I'm hoping it's vanilla... or carrot cake." Primrose said with a giggle. "But as long as it's cake who am I to complain?"

It hadn't even been ten minutes when Marshall had turned on the sink in her bathroom to wash her hands. The scream was so loud that it nearly made her shake in shock as Primrose's cries were very distinctive from all the other kids in the neighborhood. She rushed out only to see Zang arriving a second before she did to discover that on top of the tree trunk she had set the tray down onto the tray was there, the plastic cover was still present, but the cake itself was gone. Whimpering, Primrose hugged Marshall's waist as the pikachu turned to look at the Zangoose. "Well, Zang, it looks like we have a cake thief on our hands." She said solemnly as she looked at the only two who looked at each other apprehensively.

Marshall didn't have any yellow cordon tape to seal off the area, though Primrose did an excellent job outlining the tray's somewhat oblong shape with a stick of street chalk. The pikachu took a spool of her finest blue ribbon and carefully walked along the trees that lined the yard, successfully separating off the crime scene from everything else. Zang, who sat in as a site "guard" was standing outside the tape as Marshall wrapped up, she nodded sternly at him, and in return he nodded back as she ducked under the tape and approached the stump. Sitting nearby, with his hands tied together on his lap was Ray who was fuming over the idea that they had arrested him for the theft.

"You can't do this! You're not the cops!" He shouted indignantly as he tugged helplessly at the rope they used for his cuffs.

"No, we're not the police, buster. But if you're the culprit, you'll be going down for this anyway." Marshall said sternly. "As soon as my little deputy finishes collecting the evidence, we'll see what our crime lab has to say about the whole situation."

"She can't be your deputy! She was out here too, she should be a suspect." Ray said with a pout.

Marshall looked at Primrose, who smiled at her innocently. "Well I guess that's true. But she's being such a good helper, I'll let her collect her evidence first that way she gets a chance to prove her own innocence too."

"Don't worry, Marshall! I've got a ton of evidence. We'll put him away for good with all this!"

"Put me away for--you can't prove anything because I didn't do it!" Ray objected.

"Okay, that's enough out of you. Off to the crime lab we go, just because we're not the police doesn't mean you're going to get out of this so quickly. Now come on!"

Marshall pulled Ray to his feet and he stomped ahead of her as she led him by the shoulder. Primrose walked behind and was soon accompanied by Zang to make sure she didn't wander off either. As Zang opened the cellar door, the group descended down the dark flight of dirty stairs. Cobwebs on either side of the stairwell crept at their feet, the fading light of the afternoon sun casting even creepier shadows on them now that they were heading down. As they pushed through the double door at the bottom of the stairs and they stepped into the cellar, Ray scoffed as he looked around at the tarp covered objects, old computers and the like still poked out from underneath the off-gray fabric that flapped from the slightest breeze entering the room.

"This isn't a crime lab! This is just your cellar! There's no way you're going to keep me down here..." He grunted as he was pushed onto the end of a small bench. Zang led Primrose to the other side of the bench and the two older ones stood in front of them.

"Thanks to our darling suspect Primrose, we've gotten enough evidence to convict either one of you for this cake-napping!" Marshall announced as she produced a small handful of large pictures from the table beside her.

"Wait, now where did those come from--?" Ray was cut off by Marshall's speaking to them.

"Exhibit A. Photographs of the alleged crime scene, taken before and after." She showed a photo of Primrose and Ray playing. In the background the top of the cake was clearly visible behind the bushes on its roost of the tree stump. The next image depicted the two of them as they ran out of the angle of the camera, leaving the cake behind. "You detect the subtle, yet pretty contrasts of light and darkness here? It's hard to believe Primrose set these up all by herself isn't it?"

Zang frowned a bit indifferent and shrugged.

Ignoring the zangoose, Marshall continued. "Exhibit B, there were several counts of eyewitnesses who saw a suspicious looking character readying to devour the said stolen cake. When asked for more details, they provided me with this..." She said, holding up another photograph, this time of Ray himself standing in the yard, his eyes looked like they'd been doctored to a suspicious glare, his gaze shiftily turned to one side and a ridiculously fake looking mustache had been added to the photo.

"Oh come on! That doesn't look like me!" Ray objected.

Marshall put her finger across Ray's photographed nose. "Oh really? Does it look like you now, Ray? Because I think it does!" Primrose giggled loudly and gave a snort before silencing herself. "You've been caught in an eyewitness statement, Ray. I suggest you start telling us the truth! What exactly were you doing on the afternoon of July the seventh, attending the picnic in one... my own... back yard? Care to explain yourself there?!

"You... invited me?" Ray suggested, raising an eyebrow in a look of utter disbelief."

"Oh! I see, how veeeeeeery convenient, mister Ray. How convenient indeed!"

"What are you calling me a liar?" He asked in outrage.

"Now, now. We're not even to the end of our evidence!" Marshall said waving a finger at him. "Zang please show me the last photograph of the crime scene will you?" Zang plopped down into a plush leather chair and kicked a foot up as he held up the picture. "Now it's hard to make out, but the last piece of evidence was this footprint we caught at the scene of the crime, only two or three steps away from that stump headed the other direction. A piece of cake dropping can be seen just to the left side of the heel here. You see?"

Ray stared at the footprint, then his eyes fell to Zang's foot. The zangoose noticed this glance and quickly put it down. "Wait a second! That's Zang's footprint!"

Marshall stepped toward him, running a finger along her chin. "Alright. I have an idea, Zang, please lift the defendants up to show the evidence."

Without warning, Zang grabbed both Ray and Primrose by the ankles and forcibly lifted them up into the air. Primrose giggled aloud as she flailed her arms and swung her body back and forth while Ray tried to fight the bigger zangoose's grip, but simply dangled as he put his and Primrose's feet together.

"AHA!" Marshall exclaimed. "That explains it all!"

"What? What explains it all?"

"By putting your feet together, you very closely resemble the footprint found at the crime scene!" She gasped. "You two have been in on this together all this time! I should have seen it!" She said. "I should have seen it all along! It's all in the pictures!"

"No! No you've got it wrong!" Ray explained, waving his hands.

Marshall put her fingers on his lips as if trying to fight back tears. "I hereby sentence these criminals to be punished for their crimes! Zang! Reveal the torture devices!"

"Torture?" Ray asked.

"WHEEEE! This is gonna be fun!" Primrose giggled loudly.

Zang lowered Primrose to the ground and grabbed one of the large tarps at the back of the room, he pulled it off to reveal two three-holed stands side by side. One of them taller than the other, both of them quite clean and useable like they'd been used quite recently. Ray stared at the swinging chains on the stocks and gasped. "STOCKS?!" He asked. "You're going to lock us up in stocks?!"

"At least until we get both of you to agree to confessions." Marshall said. "Zang!"

"Why do I have to do all the hard work?" The zangoose asked with a sigh as he unlocked and flipped one of them open. After dropping Ray into it he closed it down, separating his head from his hands and making him stand awkwardly behind it. Primrose laughed loudly as she was grabbed by the zangoose and inserted into the smaller device.

"What are you hoping to accomplish with this?" Ray asked angrily, the meowth grunting and trying to free himself to no avail.

"Oh, I told you." Marshall said with a grin as she picked up a feather from under the bench the two of them were sitting on, and she twirled it in her fingers. "We need a confession."

Ray felt his legs get swept out from under him and forced forward as they were locked in a second compartment of the stocks with his feet facing outward. Primrose was forced to the same position, but she seemed a lot more excited about it than Ray was. Marshall continued to twirl her feather as she approached Ray, Zang plopped down in front of Primrose with a second feather and began to run it along the soles of her feet. Primrose squeaked and began to giggle loudly, her laughter breaking only by moments of snorting in between her breaths.

"Last chance, Ray. Confess, or be tickled." Marshall said threateningly with a wide grin on her face.

"No way!" Ray shouted. "I'm not going to t-to say I d-di-did something I di-didn't--BUAAAAAHAHAHAHAH!" He squealed loudly as the feather began to slide along the soles of his feet. He tried to kick the feather away, but his legs were completely locked into place by the stockade stand. He clenched his fists and wiggled his toes, trying to pull his feet in many different directions, but he couldn't escape the ever tickling wiggles of the feather moving from the balls of his feet up to the toes and slipping in between.

"AHHHHHAHAHAHAH! *snort* AHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHE! *snort*" Zang listened to Primrose's laughter and couldn't help but crack a smirk, enjoying the giggling noise coming from the female skunk.

"Oh, come on, Ray. Just give in." Marshall teased as she relentlessly waved the feather back and forth, up and down on one of the meowth's hind paws while her fingers began to spread and tickle along the flesh of his other foot. It wasn't long until Ray was literally tearing up from his laughter.

"ST-STA-AAAHAHAHA! STO-STOP--AHAHAH!" He laughed loudly, he laughed so hard that his stomach was beginning to hurt, his legs kicking against the thick boards and metal chains of the stock were beginning to hurt, but he didn't feel the pain, he only felt the tickling as he laughed, running out of air with each passing moment. "I'm n-not gonna--tttt--tell you I did it 'cause I d-di-didn't!" He laughed hard, so hard he was clutching and clawing at the boards his arms had been fit through.

"Ok-Oka-Okay! I GIVE UP!" Ray screamed after several more moments of this. Wiggling his toes was making no headway and he was literally wet in the face from his tears. "I'll confess! I'll confess! Just stop!" He laughed loudly as the feather and finger both pulled away from his feet.

"Well?" She turned to Zang who was still tickling Primrose. She too was laughing so hard her eyes were watering as the zangoose's fingers ran along her sensitive skin.

"I have to admit I'm enjoying her laughing." He said. "What do you say, Primrose? Going to give us a confession?"

"OK-OKAY!" She laughed, speaking almost completely out of breath. "Okay! I'll confess! Just st-stop this! AHAHAHAH!"

Pulling two pieces of paper out, Marshall calmly placed them over their heads, handing them pencils to sign their names, which was admittedly difficult being unable to move their arms. Once signed, she smiled. "Okay, I think you two have had enough fun. Zang?" She said to the zangoose who rose and left the room to head upstairs.

"FUN?!" Ray exclaimed. "You think this torture is fun? You've got a thing or two to prioritize lady!" Coming back down, Zang observed the younger ones being released from the stocks with an air of disappointment on his face and a large cake in his hand. "HEY! How did you find the cake so quick?" Ray asked. "Where'd you find it?"

"Oh we've had it the whole time." Marshall teased. "I just had him go out and get it while you guys were playing and not paying attention."

"So that footprint was his!" Ray pointed out.

"Well, the details aren't so important now, the important thing is that after a day of playing, we finally get to enjoy a tasty cake together!" She said with a smile as she handed out plates to all four of them.

Grumbling in irritation still, Ray took a big slice of cake on his plate. Sticking his fork in he could see a goopy strawberry filling dribble out onto his plate and he took a bite, inhaling deeply as the sweet taste filled his mouth and made him forget about the farce of an interrogation he had just gone through. It really was a delicious cake, well worth a real crime after all.

THE END