Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters created for the show
TRA:JQ.
Date: 2/21/00
Catagories: H, Fam, P, V
Author: Bryne aka Michelle
Rating: PG
Title:

                          Vacuuming can be Hazardous

     Ten year old Jonny Quest vigilantly combed the upstairs floor of
the Florida compound, searching for any sign of his quarry.
     “Bandit,” he called as loudly as he dared. “Bandit? Where are you
boy?” There was, of course, no response. Jonny sighed and turned to peek
into one of the lesser used rooms on the floor. It had been several
hours since the small dog had slipped away from his not so attentive
young master and his adopted brother. Actually, Jonny and Hadji weren’t
sure of exactly when Bandit had vanished, they had been to caught up in
their search for Christmas presents. The good ones that Doctor Quest had
the bad habit of hiding in very obvious spots. Unfortunately, looking
for presents did not allot enough time for dog sitting as well. Thus the
disappearance of their four legged companion.
     Looking around the well furnished room, Jonny called once more for
the pup. Not a peep, not even a breeze to stir the draperies.
Disappointed in his lack of success, Jonny retreated from the abandoned
room, shutting the door quietly behind him.
     “Anything?” a soft, musical voice asked the blond. Jonny shook his
head sadly.
     “Nope. You?” The turbaned clad head shook negatively causing Jonny
to sigh. “Dad’s gonna kill me. I was supposed to be keeping an eye on
him.”
     “We are both to blame, Jonny,” Hadji said wisely.
     “Oh drop it Hadj, you don’t want to get in trouble any more than I
do.” Hadji’s shoulders slumped and his eyes dulled slightly.
     “I do not want to displease Doctor Quest,” he admitted.
     “He’s not going to make you go back, Hadji,” Jonny said with more
insight than most ten year boys could comprehend. Hadji was silent and
Jonny knew that his play mate was still worried. He smiled, the traces
of what would be his famous lopsided grin pushing the edges of his
youthful face. “I mean, if all it took was one mess up, why would I be
here?” Hadji let out a small snort before quickly covering his mouth. He
looked up at Jonny causing both to burst out laughing.
     “Well what are we waiting for?” Hadji asked. “Let’s find that dog
before he makes any more trouble.”
     “Right,” Jonny replied enthusiastically. They two moved to continue
on down the hall, when a loud crash emanated from down stairs.
     “Bandit!” the boys cried in unison, the need to keep quite lest the
doctor and Race be alerted to their predicament temporarily forgotten.
Doing complete one-eighties, the two rushed down the hall to the source
of the sound and threw open the door blocking them from the small dog
that had caused so much trouble.
     Sure enough, standing dejectedly in the middle of the room,
dripping wet and whimpering was Bandit. The remains of one of Doctor
Quest’s favorite vases haphazardly surrounded him and a few broken
daisies covered the widening puddle as it spread over the rug. The two
boys stood in the door way, unable to move, afraid the spell of the room
would be broken and reality would come crashing down around them and
their father would walk in.
     The sight of his young masters; standing there in the doorway,
mouths gaping open at the mess, eyes frozen in shock; was too much for
Bandit. Doing the only thing his distressed puppy mind could think of to
do, he sat back on his haunches, rivulets of water tricking down his
muzzle, and howled.
     “Bandit!” Jonny scolded sharply, silencing the pup from his soulful
serenade. His blue eyes glared down at the masked dog and Bandit
cowered, whimpering pathetically. Jonny’s eyes softened with sympathy.
“Sorry Bandit.” Jonny knew what it felt like to be yelled at and he was
sure Bandit liked it even less than he did. Bandit softly woofed his
pardon and wagged his stubby little tail in forgiveness. The blond boy
walked over and scooped the wet creature up, pulling him close as he
scratched roughly behind his ears. The tail picked up momentum.
     “Hadji,” Jonny said, his voice filled with worry despite his
affectionate treatment of Bandit, “what are we going to do?” Jonny
looked down at the carpet and the decimated vase.
     “Well,” Hadji answered, his voice slightly unsure, “we should
probably hide the evidence.”
     “Hm,” Jonny replied thoughtfully. “How we going to do that?” Bandit
wriggled in Jonny’s grasp and tried to try and shake himself free. Jonny
tightened his grip as he looked up from the shattered remains of the
vase to Hadji.
     “I am afraid I am not totally sure, but I have the bad feeling that
we must act quickly.” Sure enough, from outside a door slammed loudly in
the distance. Race and Benton were most likely wrapping up their work
and getting ready to head back to the house. The boys exchanged worried
glances.
     “We’re going to have to vacuum up the broken pieces, aren’t we
Hadji?” Jonny said nervously. It wasn’t something he was proud of, but
Jonny was deathly afraid of the vacuum. Or at least he was now, ever
since his role model Race Bannon had vacuumed up the head of his
favorite G.I. Joe doll in an effort to help hide their latest
misadventure before Benton Quest returned home. While it had been
awfully nice of Race to help, in the end it had been more damaging than
any rebuke his father could have come up with.
     Hadji nodded solemnly. Jonny’s sole confident next to Bandit, Hadji
knew all about the blond boy’s fear of the accursed machine.
     “It will be all right Jonny,” Hadji said soothingly. Jonny gulped
nervously.
     “Yeah, sure.” The two boys vacated the room single file and marched
down the hall, their little bodies unbearably old looking. They marched
together as if being watched by a malicious drill Sergeant until they
reached their destination: the hall closet. Reaching the door, the two
stopped and stood still, each waiting for the other to make a move.
     “You going to open it?” Jonny asked.
     “No,” Hadji said with a scowl. “You?”
     “No.”
     “Well, one of us has to open it.” Both boys stared at the door and
Bandit growled softly in that way that said he was scared.
     “This is silly,” Hadji said, crossing his arm. “It is just a vacuum
Jonny.”
     “Oh yeah?” Jonny challenged, even as he squeezed Bandit for
reassurance. “Then you open it.”
     “Fine. I will.” Hadji looked warily at the door and seemed to
change his mind. “Jonny?” he asked.
     “Yeah?”
     “Think we could open it together?” Jonny gave a small, scared
smiled and nodded. Hadji looked relieved. The two stepped closer to the
darkened door. Hadji reached out a tentative hand and placed it on the
knob. Together, the two held their breath as the knob turned under his
hand. A clicking sound filled the unbearable silent hallway accompanied
by a deafening creaking as the door slid slowly open to reveal only a
peep inside. The two leaned forward to get a good look inside . . . just
as the door twitched within Hadji’s grasp.
     The boys jumped back, just in time to avoid being smacked as the
door flew out toward them.
     “AH!” they screamed in unison even as they dropped to the floor,
just the way Race had told them to in case of an emergency. A crunching,
cracking sound accompanied the movement and the boys clung to each other
in fear as the sounds of crashing echoed from the closet. Poor Bandit
was so scared he wet the front of Jonny’s shirt. Silence followed the
momentary activity and a bright green tennis ball rolled out, stopping
in front of Jonny’s trembling feet.
     “Hadji?” Jonny whispered into the eerie quiet of the hallway. “Are
you all right?”
     “I believe so my friend,” Hadji whispered back, but his voice had a
strangled quality to it.
     “Hadji,” Jonny whisper worriedly “what’s wrong with your voice?”
     “You are choking me,” he gasped. Jonny instantly released his death
grip on Hadji, allowing his friend to breathe. Bandit also managed to
escape.
     “Aw Bandit!” Jonny said crossly, forgetting his fear to chide the
puppy. “Look at my shirt!” Bandit buried his face in his paws with shame
and whined.
 “Jonny, you can change your shirt later,” Hadji reminded him, looking
pointedly at the suspiciously subdued closet. Jonny nodded, his blue
eyes widening in his otherwise remarkably composed face. Taking charge
as the leader, he crept forward, acting as if the closet was a living
monster just waiting to pounce and devour a child at any moment. The
dark innards of the small room stared back at him.
                                                            A small
click.
     “Jonny? Jonny, you can get off the ground, I just turned on the
light.” Jonny looked out from the protection of his arms, now securely
wrapped around his blond head, and his huddled position on the floor.
     “Oh, yeah. I knew that.” Hadji’s face seemed to say otherwise, but
he didn’t press the matter. “Come on, let’s get that vacuum.” The two
walked over and peered inside.
     Junk was heaped in a large pile at the bottom but now that they
could see, the closet wasn’t nearly as scary as it had been. Shoes and
hangers and boxes of all shapes and sizes littered the ground,
precariously maintaining their balance.
     “Sheesh. Who would have thought Dad had so much junk?” Hadji
grunted in agreement and took a mental record of what had fallen.
     “Where’s the vacuum?” the turbaned boy asked softly, his survey of
the wreckage coming up without it.
     “Dunno,” Jonny replied. “Guess it didn’t fall with the rest of the
junk in here.” He chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully and looked up to
the top shelf of the small closet. Sure enough, resting smugly at the
top was the large vacuum.. “Well, there it is.” Hadji looked up to where
Jonny was pointing.
     “How are we going to get it down?” Hadji asked, causing Jonny to
shrug in puzzlement.
     “Beats me,” he replied dismally. If they couldn’t get the large
machine down, how were they going to hide the mess from his father?
“Stupid vacuum!” Jonny yelled, kicking the doorjamb of the closet with
his sneakered foot. With a ceremonious teetering on the edge, the
vacuum, fell face first off the shelf.
     “Ah!” the boys screamed and jumped back, avoiding being flattened
by the bitter machine.
     “That was close,” Hadji said, brown eyes wide as he looked at the
spot where the vacuum had landed. Jonny nodded dumbly as he stared at
the imposing machine that had almost ended his short life. It was just
sitting there, resting peacefully in the spot where they had been
standing only seconds before.
     “I’ll say.” The boys took several tentative steps toward the
machine. Nothing happened.
     “This is silly,” Hadji said, reaching out to take the vacuum. The
hose lunged at him.
     “Ah!” the boys screamed. The hose wagged its tail.
     “Bandit!” Jonny cried, reaching into the closet and extracting his
dog, “How’d you get in there?” The puppy licked his master’s face in
greeting, ignoring Jonny’s high pitched question. “You know you wet my
shirt.” Bandit yipped happily and licked his face again. “I can tell
you’re very upset.” He looked at Hadji. “Come on Hadji, let’s get this
thing down to the room before anything else happens.” Hadji nodded
vigorously and lifted up one end of the vacuum while Jonny grabbed the
other, tucking Bandit under his free arm so he could keep track of him..

     Stalking down the hall, the boys tried not to drop the deceivingly
heavy machine on the floor. Being two little boys trying to escape
punishment, they were not successful.
     “Ouch!” Jonny cried as he lost his grip and the end of the vacuum
fell on his foot.
     “Sh!” Hadji admonished sharply, his eyebrows knitted crossly. “Do
you want Race or Doctor Quest to hear you?” Jonny shook his head
sullenly and rubbed his aching toe before retrieving his end. “Quietly
Jonny, quietly.” Two chips in the wall, three slightly bruised digits
and a stubbed toe later the boys finally got to the room they had been
looking for.
     “Finally,” Jonny said, plopping down his half. Hadji gently lowered
his end.
     “Here,” Hadji said, pulling out the cord, “plug it in.”
     “All right,” Jonny agreed. Getting down on his knees he had to
crawl underneath a three legged end table before he could get behind the
rather large chair to search for the electrical outlet. Meanwhile, Hadji
struggled to connect the hose at the other end of the machine.
     “Got it!” Jonny cried triumphantly. Backing out from behind the
chair, he sat up too quickly and smacked his head on the table. “Ow!” he
cried in pain. Pulling out from underneath he rubbed the top of his head
and scowled at the table. “Stupid table.”
     “Jonny!” Hadji cried. Jonny’s head whipped around only to see the
vacuum hose attacking Hadji.
 “I’ll save you!” Jonny yelled, making a loud war whoop as he converged
on the instrument of death wrapped around Hadji’s neck.
     “No!”Hadji called, but it was too late. Jonny was in the air, an
almost decent flying dragon position. “GAH!” The boys collided head on
and lay in a heap on the floor. The stayed there for a minute.
     “Hadji?”
     “Yes my friend?” Hadji replied weakly.
     “You okay?”
     “I will be once you get off of me and help unwind this vacuum hose
from my body.”
     “Right.” Jonny jumped up and set to work untangling Hadji. It
wasn’t long before Jonny was as knotted in the hose as Hadji. “Well that
wasn’t supposed to happen.” Hadji sighed.
     “Jonny, do you think you could get your elbow out of my side?”
     “Sorry Hadji, but there’s not a whole lot of room to move right
now.” Grunting a bit Jonny strained against the bindings and wiggled to
get out. Unfortunately all the wiggling only resulted in the hose
tightening around the already squished boys.
     “Jonny, stop moving,” Hadji commanded. Jonny stood still. “Thank
you. Now, let me think.”
     “This could take a while.”

~ 15 minutes later ~

     “Have you thought of anything yet Hadji?”
     “No, but perhaps if you would be quiet I could concentrate.” Jonny
sighed.

~ 15 minutes later ~

     “Hadji, you think you could hurry?”
     “You can not rush brilliance my friend.”
     “But Hadji, I have to go to the bathroom.”
     “Uh-oh.”

~ 15 minutes later ~

     “I wish you could have held it a little longer.”
     “Well, I did tell you.” Hadji sighed.

~ 15 minutes later ~

     “I wish Dad or Race would come up here.”
     “Even if it meant getting yelled at?”
     “Better getting yelled at then tied to your friend for the rest of
your life.”
     “I see your point.”

~ 15 minutes later ~

     “All right, I’ve had enough.”
     “Jonny, what are you going to do?”
     “I don’t know yet, but I want out of this hose.” Jonny began his
struggles against the bindings once more, twitching and moving and
shaking to free himself. Seeing nothing better to do, Hadji joined in.
From the sidelines, Bandit just barked. “Lot of help YOU are Bandit.”
Bandit sniffed and moved to leave.
     “Bandit!” Hadji cried desperately, stopping the dog in his tracks.
“Sit.” The dog sat. Jonny looked at him. “The last thing we need is for
him to wander away and break something else.”
     “Oh. Good point Hadji.”
     “Jonny! My right arm is free!”
     “That’s great Hadji! You think you can get the rest undone?”
     “Let me see.” Hadji grunted and strained, manipulating the tightly
wound cord and finally managed to pull himself free.     “There,” he
crowed triumphantly. “Stay still Jonny, I will have you  free in a
moment.” Sure enough, before long Jonny was free as well.
     “Thanks Hadji, I didn’t think I’d ever get out of there.”
     “You are welcome Jonny,” Hadji said as he pealed the last bit of
hose off his friend, “but I think it’s best if we save the pleasantries
for later and get the vacuuming over with as soon as possible.”
     “You’ve got my vote.” The two set back to the vacuum and working as
a team were able to subdue the hose long enough to attach it to the
vacuum itself and finish setting up. “Whoo! Glad that part’s done. Now
on to the easy stuff.”
     “Jonny,” Hadji asked, “I hate to ask this, but do you know how to
use the vacuum?”
     “Sure,” Jonny said, pressing the on button, I’ve watch Race and Dad
do it thousands of times. How hard could it be?” Hadji sighed.


     Race and Benton entered the house on Palm Key from the kitchen
entrance and were surprised when they weren’t greeted by two small boys
and their dog. Warning bells went off.
     “Is it just me, Benton, or is this house too quiet?”
     “With my sons in it? Definitely too quiet.” He sighed. “They must
be up to something.”
     “Aren’t they always?” Benton nodded.
     “I suppose we should find them and stop them from destroying
whatever it is they’re working on.”
     “Say, you don’t think they found the Christmas presents, do you
Benton?”
     “Not a chance. I moved them to the attic and you know the boys are
deathly afraid of going up there.”
     “Good choice Benton.”

CRASH!
     “Good mother of-”
     “What was that?” The two turned to each other.
     “THE BOYS!”


     “See Hadji? I told you, nothing to it.”
     “Jonny! It looks worse than it did before.”
     “BOYS!” Benton Quest roared over the din of the still whirling
vacuum. The two boys looked up from the vacuum at their father.
     “Hi Dad,” Jonny said timidly, “how was your day?”
     “What in the name of Pete happened here?” The boys looked at each
other, then at the room and overturned furniture complete with a
cowering Bandit in the corner then back to each other. “Well?” he
demanded.
     Jonny looked solemnly up at his father. “Dad, would you believe the
vacuum is possessed?”