Chapter Text
Wile E stood ontop of a cliff observing the road beneath him with a spyglass, his plan for catching the roadrunner already in action
He knew the road that blue bird picked for today, he's chased him through it before many many times, infact there was no road the two haven't had their chase on out there, they ran through the entire desert and back and after the many many years the paths despite being similar could be told apart.
The coyote waited, he had to have timed it perfectly!
Underneath him were old rusty tracks that he sent out a long slow old train on, any second now the roadrunner would be running towards him right into his clutches with his path blocked! Then all he had to do was throw a stick of dynamite right under his taloons, then dig in!
Wile E rubbed his hands together, an evil grin plastered all over his face as he waited, the thought made his mouth water.
Suddenly all his attention was grabbed by a familiar fast blue blur on the road coming closer and closer at impossible speed, Wile E frowned grabbing the spy glass tighter, the roadrunner was running towards him but the train hasn't blocked the path yet!
Sweating Wile E looked between the fast approaching roadrunner and the empty train tracts, fastly switching between the two more panic and sweat growing with each glance
But just as he was about to run past them, just as he was about to avoid another one of his traps without even knowing it, a loud WHOOM sound stopped him in his tracks, the train was timed perfectly blocking the roadrunner mere milliseconds before he could pass them
The coyote smiled wildly and threw the explosive red stick down without a second thought, roadrunner watched as it rolled right under his feet…unlit.
Wile E froze, roadie looked up at him with his bright smile "meep meep!" He taunted smile bright as ever.
Ough! That was it!
Wile E jumped down, claws out ready to pounce on the blue thing, just for him to move to the side last second, the only thing coyote got his claws and fangs on was the hot bitter ashy asphalt, he growled ready to get up and pounce on him again only to notice his unlit dynamite right infront of him.
Fastly he grabbed it, struck a match he pulled seemingly out of nowhere and set the short black line ablaze.
But before anything else could be done a loud, unnatural sharp noise assulted their ears, throwing them both off their routine, the ground itself shook harshly
Admittedly scared Wile E looked around trying to locate what on earth caused it, this impossible cacophony in the middle of nowhere!? Wile E's old rusty train has came to a stop, rails screamed against the shins of the train, covering his ears he looked back trying to figure out what was wrong, everything should be fine!?
His eyes widened as the train seemingly started moving backwards, as it was soon revealed a different train pushed it against it's path soon taking over the scenary behind him painfully slow with it in it's path
Coyote looked away from it, his hands moved off his ears as the cacophony moved away now only a soft sizzle of the dynamite being the only unusual-
His face fell and eyes widened at the dynamite, still in his hand, with no string left.
BOOM!
It was the usual, really, roadrunner watched as he made a fool of himself and an explosion made his entire body turn into ash.
But what wasn't usual was how insanely loud the explosion was, or how Wile E instead of feeling himself turn to ash as his eyeballs stayed where they usually were only to fall after, was flying across the sky. So high he was above the clouds, overly strong explosion pushing him so fast away from their original destination he could only compare it to the runnar at full speed.
The other unusual thing was how fast it felt, one second he was infront of the train tracks with the roadrunner blowing a rasberry at him, then he blinked and was up in the sky, then he watched himself fall and fall between the cracks of the canyons.
Then it all went dark.
It took him a while untill he slowly weakly opened his tired stinging eyes, suddenly feeling intense pain in his throat coughing out dark smoke falling to the ground.
Despite his overwhelmed confused state he could place exactly what the smoke that just forced itself out of him smelt like.
Gunpowder.
…gunpowder?
Wile E blinked thinking back on the plan, he was using dynamite nothing else? Was the train that crashed into his train carring gunpowder!?
He got up completley covered in dark ash, it would explain why the explosion was so insanely intense…but what were the odds? The timing? It was much even for his insane luck- before he could wonder more on it another thought forcefully shoved itself into his head-
The roadrunner…
The roadrunner!
The coyote looked around, he was in the catacombs of the desert, at the very bottom of canyons where usually rivers ran through, he looked at the overly tall dark orange walls going up and up and up almost like they had no end.
There were no roads there, no way the roadrunner could go down there even if to taunt him.
Damn it…Damn it! Wile E stomped on the ground furious, the ash falling off him with every mad jump!
gone again-!
Not like he had tons of faith in this plan, he usually got splatted by the trains instead of controlling them not to mention his purposfully explosive traps turn against him more than they lisen to him, he knew it was most likely to blow- but the hope was still there, it was as much of a worthy attempt as all the other….
...but still! he didn't expect it to go so south so fast let alone lead to a chain reaction, who still drove these trains through their desert anyway!? the one he found was ancient! Not to mention the railroads were so old their rust had rust besides there had to be a safer path for explosive materials!
Oughhh! He could almost feel the steam coming out his ears!
Crumbled Wile E snapped his fingers in frustratin and just as he was bound to walk away, already thinking of what went wrong and how to improve his masterplan he heard an unusual sound "mee-gh!"
at first it appeared to be the roadrunners usuall call, a noise he's gotten used to long long ago expecting to hear it everyday for the rest of his life but in the middle it shrivled up turning into a grating screach, a sound that immidietly made something in his stomach drop, he froze in place all rational thoughts knocked right out in less than a second
The roadrunner was still there, close.
Wile E poked his head out from the side of the canyon looking around, infront of him, aproximatley 8 feet away stood Roadrunner, his back turned on him, as tall as beautiful with his sky and ocean blue feathers moving softly with the wind, his long golden legs gracing the ground, there stood the most priced animal of all.
he observed him hours upon hours every day yet coudn't wake himself from falling into a trance looking- admiring each and every time, he had him burned into his eyes from every single angle.
So of course it didnt take him long to realize the picture he was looking at was was incorrect, the roadrunner was not moving.
…
Why was the roadrunner not moving?
He never stood still for so long let alone for no reason! The seeds were nowhere to ge found not to mention he didn't seem to be looking for them, he didn't seem to be looking for anything, a glance to the side, up and down, there was no specific pinpoint for the birds intrigue.
it took the coyote embaressingly long to realize one of his legs wasn't on the ground instead up in the air, pose usual for a flamingos not roadrunners.
Wile E tried looking where the runner looked trying to figure what could be keeping his attention for so long, what could be so mesmarizing or utterly outstanding but it were just the long walls of the canyons, not much different from how they were higher up if ritcher in color.
Wile E's body moved on its own
he was so close he had to try and grab him by that long thin neck of his, it reminded him of a river…
Something still felt wrong
where was the chase?
Surely he was just baiting him but why?
He moved slowly…too slow for someone wanting to catch dinner, his feet made noise against the orange gravel definitley loud enough to alert him but he didnt look back, he didnt jump up wiggled his taloons, blew a rasberry then meep meep'd onto the road far far away leaving him in the dust only with his thoughts to his name.
why wasn't he running?
Didn't he realize how close he was?
The coyode dragged his leg, it made more noise, but didn't get any reaction.
No matter how unimaginably majestic the Road Runner was even he in his full glory coudn't undo the wrongness of this scenary it was smudged, like a bad parody of what his triumph was meant to be, it felt like he was about to waje up from what coudn't even be described as a dream
they weren't running, he didn't outsmart him, they were down down in tunels of the canyon instead of up on the road and roadie wasn't reacting to obvious noise he was making- the trap that sellout tweety set for him in the city felt more belivable.
Was it possible the memory just tainted the scenary?
Finally, after what felt like forever the birds head moved to the side far enough he could see his usual cheery smile was replaced by something lower, something he last saw in the courtroom…turned to the side roadie fast noticed him, the birds head fully turned towards him smile back in place like it never left.
"meep meep!" He cheered jumping up, blowing a rasberry and moving his leg in place getting ready for to run away! Yes! Like usua-
The roadrunner proceeded to swiftly jump away…jump, not run, jump.
his speed absurdly reduced. the coyode could easily catch up, hell he could surpass him!
Road Runner too must have noticed the absurdity of the situation as he stopped not even that far away, he looked at him with those big eyes of his and usual happy mousy smile, he always looked so so happy.
If the scene wasn't so bombasticly unusual he'd run up to him fangs ready to wrap around his neck, arms up in the air ready to pounce on him from the sides, so so close he could almost teaste it- then he'd pull away last second, close enough for him to smell him, touch him, feel his heat but be denied everything last second, fantasy so sweet it almost pulled him away from what was happening now
They were not chasing eachother anymore.
Wile E moved closer without his preys protests He pulloud out a large sign from his hammer space [What?]
Then he saw it, roadie's left leg was up in the air, beautiful orange in contrast against his feathers aside the it was sharply bent just below his knee unnaturaly to the side, the claw itself appeared squeezed into something like a fist.
Wile E felt a new set of emotions set in as it didn't take a genius (despite him being one) to realize-
the leg was broken.
He's never ever seen Road Runner hurt, well outside once seeing him in a cast during that rudiculous basketball game others dragged them into- but he belived he put it on just to try and make others feel less bad, hell he didn't see how it happened so he belived it didn't-!
but never in 77 years of chasing him has he seen roadrunner hurt by anything in the desert, let alone so much!
So there he was, the Road Runner, less than a feet away from him, vornouble, he could not run away if he tried, his only advantage over him gone, surely he could struggle, peck at him with his sharp pointy beak, scratch him with his claws but no matter how you spun it the coyode would tear him to shreads…
the longer he stood next to him the more he could feel seliva drip from his mouth on it's own, the smell, the view
he looked at him with a crazed pityful expression, one only seen on him after a dynamite blows in his face.
the roadrunner stared back, smile wide as ever.
He could not think of what to do, he could never imagine catching him this way, it was always meant to be in the middle of the chase or with one of his gadgets to hold him in place, he imagined catching him so much it felt like a memory yet, there it was, the real deal righr infront of him now.
No chase.
But also no way out.
There truly were no thoughts behind his next action.
It just…happened.
The loud humming of a TV filled the room, commercial after commerial flashing on the bright screen as if anyone was paying attention, Kevin sighed stirring pinkish liquid with ice in a tall glass with a straw before picking up a large plate of ribs with one hand ready to relax for the night, put on some old dramatic movie, dim down the lights and louse on infront of the Tv just for tonight.
Things have been blasting with all the toon client's, they practicly poured into their place one after another, it quickly became very tireing he's never worked on so many cases at once and the stories and cases while all caused by ACME largely varied from eachother not to mention a good chunk of the toons coming in didn't spare him the detail at times venting all their frustration out to him, even when he tried to keep them on the topic they keept on talking and talking…not like he could blame them but still-
He was glad to help them. He really was, this spark of hope helpfulness relit in him and was burning brightly…but he's never been so tired in his entire life!
it felt like he ran a marathon sometimes both physicly and mentally not to mention he got his hands busy with some personal business to top it all off too, trying to rent an accual nice house with his new found money.
So on nights like these, knowing there opening later than usually tomorrow, that truly made him rest, it was just gonna be him, his take out, and pink lemonade all night
Kevin sat down on his bed and turned up the volume of the tv muscles finally relaxing as-
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
So sudden and agressive it startled him almost as much as annoyed him, silently screaming kevin put the plate down and got up, this better be important-!
"What is it?" He sighed opening the doors ready to meet eyes with the receptionist lady and some complaint but be suprised when he had to look down onto a toon…The toon.
The toon that started it all, the toon that stubbornly forced him to face his problems, the toon that sued the biggest corporation in the world and most importantly, his friend he hasn't seen in weeks.
Wile E Coyote.
With the Road Runner in his hands.