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| >> Campfire Creative >> Novel >> Fantasy >> ID #1494190 |   |
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| [Introduction]
This story I want to try something a little different. This is a story within a story. The Main story is a bedtime story Bill is telling his kids Jeffery and Frito Bandito (don't ask their grandfather named them) Bill is an underage father, he had sex with a girl named Maddy Mudgeman on his 14th birthday, she later died in childbirth giving birth to twins. So this story is being told by Bill which stars himself and his friends and aquantances however his imagenation places them in a dark cyberpunk future, insted of being gene spliced to fight alien invaders Bill, Jim, Minsk and the rest are spliced to serve as slaves in this dytopian future! This campfire introduces Jim's girlfriend Jordan Celt as the fabulous Squirrel Girl, I've been meaning for the longest time to get Jordan spliced into a squirrel and joining the team |
 Twiga  It all started like this...Bill was spending some quality time with his two illegitamite children Jeffery-Beffery and Frito Bandito (Don't ask... their grandfather named them) Any way their 'quality time' mostly of watching tv with his kids. They were watching Flopsy Flops and the Fuzzy Bunch it was mostly about a little gang of critters a dog, a cat, mouse and whatnot going to preshcool and learning about sharing and giving a care and stuff like that "I wuv my imgenary fwiend!" "My imagenary friend is a toy that never breaks!" After watching this for a couple minutes Bill coulden't take it any longer and he turned off the TV "Hey! We were watching that!" Cried Frito "No offense kids but you watch some pretty lousy shows." Bill said popping the tape out of the VCR "These shows got no drama. Where's the thrill of seduction? The seduction of thrills? The lurking threat of death?" The kids just gave him some blank stares "I watched some pretty awesome cartoons back in my day." Bill said "TMNT, D&D, Sonic Underground." "Grandpa says you're not allowed to show us any of your show." Jeffery Beffery said "Oh... shoot." Bill sighed "Well in that case you two can sit on my knees and I'll tell you a story. So the twins sat on his knees and Bill tried to think of a story Once upon a time there was a planet called Ava. It was the planet of the birds. It was ruled most benevolently by King Atal and Queen Jezzle, Jezzle had laid two eggs and they hatched into a son and daughter, Prince Zander and Princess Gear respectivly. Now all seemed perfectly well on Planet Ava but than... The Bettas came! Nasty bugs from Rigel 3 their only ambition to conquer and enslave every free world! The Octo Oricle Tropfor told Atal and Jezzle that their children were destined to defeat the Bettas and bring harmony to the universe but in order for the prophacy to come true they must give up their children and leave them on a planet called Paydran. Paydran was once called Earth but that was before it was taken over by Ultratech, a massive coorperation that has replaced all goverments. Queen Jezzle was about to take her children to Paydran when a servant woman begged her to take her son too "I do not want my child enslaved by Bettas!" She said "Revel is much to small and weak!" Jezzle did not have the heart to refuse and flew all three children to Paydran where Tropfor's nephew Squilly was waiting Steve Ellen Squilly had a small apartment in one of the massive high-rise buildings that the citizens of Paydran called home. Each building contained a thousand two-bedroom apartments, complete with microwave and big screen TV.Zander and Gear took one look at Squilly's apartment and sniffed. "This is nothing like our palace on Ava," Zander said. "This place is a dump." But little Revel had no complaints. He was occupied chasing the dust bunnies that blew back and forth under the sofa everytime the heating and air conditioning unit cycled on. Gear and Zander grew very homesick. "This place sucks," Zander said. Jezzle racked her brain trying to think of something fun for the kids to do. There were fun things to do on Paydran but most of them were not suitable for kids, seeing as how they involved either fast vehicles, weapons, drugs, or naked ladies, and sometimes all four of those things together. Jezzle thumbed through the phone book. She remembered when he was a kid there were places called Chucky Cheese that were kid-friendly, but apparently they ceased to exist when the current Dystopian government came to power - Ultratech. Twiga (Steve, Jezzle is the MOTHER, Atal is the father)Jezzle had no time left becuase she had to fly back to Ava to fight by her husband's side She kissed her son and daughter good bye and flew away back to Ava. Squilly gathered the children in his tenticles and held them close "Zander, Gear, Revel. There is something I must tell you about Paydran. I must tell you about the Underpeople." "Are those the people who live downstairs?" Gear asked "No, no,no" Squilly chuckled warmly "The Underpeople are the underclass of this planet." "Let me tell about it." Squilly said holding the young birds closer "Underpeople are crimanals, theives murderers and the like who are genetcly manipulated into beast-like beings and must serve out their sentence though hard labor." Squilly sighed "Some of them have service jobs Waiters, butlers, maids and the like but some of them have truly nightmareish jobs! Those are the ones who must work deep underground in Downdeep-Downdeep. They work the machines that keep electricity and heat running, they do the jobs no one wants. The Underpeople are very dangerous I advise you to keep away from them." Poor Squilly, the goverment had tricked him into bieliving the lie they tell everyone else, Underpeople were not crimanals but the children of crimanals! It was all the idea of the High Elder who was the Grand CEO of Ultratech he created this system as the ultimate test of person's morality. If you commit a crime your children will be turned into animals and forced to slave and toil for all their lives, and if you don't have a child than you will be required to have one as your fine. It was not just the children of felons, homeless were expected to hand over their teenager as a means of paying their taxes and every year street urchins were wrangled like wild horses and shipped to the mutation labs Steve Ellen One of the worst places to work in the Downdeep was the sewage compression facility. Steam-powered presses compacted all the wastes from above into dense bricks of compacted sewage. After baking, the bricks were used to build new apartment buildings on Paydran. It was an efficient recycling process. The only drawback was the strong odor of the bricks. But it was typical of the Ultratech approach to life. For example of the Ultratech approach: almost all the food on Paydran was artificially made from huge vats of algae. The clever scientists of Ultratech fashioned algae into imitation steaks and burgers. Even lettuce and tomatoes could be fmanufactured by using dyes and simple molding techniques on the algae sludge. This basic food was heavily salted to cover the algae taste. There were also sweetfoods manufactured, but they were very expensive and mainly used as treats and rewards to encourage workers to be more productive. The elite of Paydran, the Lords of Ultratech, had private gardens and ate natural foods and used mutated humans for slaves. Squilly was in the middle class, unaware of both the horrors of Downdeep and the luxuries of the Lords because the Ultratech propaganda was so efficient and persuasive. "You'll like it here," Squilly told Gear and Zander and Revel. "You'll go to school and do paper cut-outs and finger counting. If you're lucky, when you grow up you will get jobs in cubicles where you can stare at glass data screens all day." "We're not going to stay here forever!" Zander said. "I am a prince!" Twiga "I never said you would stay here forever." Squilly said "When they time is right you will retern to Ava.""When will that be?" Zander asked "I'll let you know when you're ready." Squilly said Meanwhile across the city, street children were evading the Wranglers that swept threw the slums every year! The smart, fast and tough were the ones that got away, for a while anyway. Zander, Gear and Revel frew from little fledgeling into strong young bird people. They got their education in Ava politics, socity, culture so when they made their triumphant return to Ava they would be ready. Finally on the day of Zander's 18th birthday (Gear hatched a day after him) Squilly prepared them for their journey back to Ava. "You must travel to the heart of Robotropilis." Squilly said "There you will find a secret spaceship. You must take it to Ava." "You mean steal it?" Gear asked "Not really." Squilly said "It's an Octo ship. Once owned by my Great Grandpappy Occo. If anything the humans stole it from us Octos!" He muttered under hias breath "Lousy xenophobic-ape faced monkeys." "We'll do our best." Zander said Meanwhile. In the heart of Robotropilis. Some wrangelers broght in some new urchins 'You got to pay us more for rounding up these rowdy teens." One of them said "They're getting more fiesty every year! We lost three men on this expiedition!" "If you can think of a better way to get street kids I'd like to hear it." Said Mr. Lex Luthor "What's your name?" Lex asked a tall blond boy "Bill Brandy." The boy said "He looks strong." Lex mused "Let's make him a bull." He decided to make the short, lean brown haired boy, Jim a red squirrel, the fat little redhead boy a catfish, and the tall Russian Brunette a mink-woman. "Take them all to Room 666" Lex Luthor said "They can join the unicorn-woman and the squirrel girl!" Steve Ellen The teens were linked together by heavy chains, but still Bill whispered to Jim, "Let's try to make a break for it."Jim looked at him with a sad face. "Don't you know when you're beaten? We'll never get away from this." They were marched into Room 666, a huge cavern of a room with a high ceiling. It was filled with advanced scientific machinery and scientists in white coats. There were also guards dressed in black. Lex Luthor pointed at Bill. "We'll do him first. I'm anxious to see if my new bull formula works." Bill was pushed into a huge machine made of stainless steel and glass. The door was sealed and a yellow liquid began to fill the chamber holding Bill. He decided not to panic, but the urge to beat his fists against the glass and scream "Let me out!" was very strong. He gritted his teeth and felt the warm fluid quickly rise to his waist and then to his neck. Twiga Soon they were all in their tanks and begining their transformations. They quickly fell asleep under the poitions spell.Meanwhile Zander, Gear and Revel were traveling in the underground passage way that provided safe Steve Ellen "Are you sure we're in the right passage?" Gear said. Zander consulted the hand-drawn map. "I think so." "We've been walking a long time..." "I know it. What else can we do?" Gear clicked her teeth. "Maybe someone found the spaceship and moved it?" "Quit worrying so much. Either it's here or it isn't. If it's here then I'll find it." "And if it isn't?" "Then I don't know." Twiga Soon they found an elevator, with it was a sign labled 'To Room 666'Seeing no better options they decided to use it. When they reched the floor they were suronded by darkness "I'm scarred!" Gear said "It's OK" Revel tried to comfort her The only light was from floresant tubes, Zander looked at them and saw they all contained a human/animal hybrid "This must be where they make the Underpeople." Zander mused He noticed there were photographs of each subject in his or her human form, Zander looked at them and saw that none of them were adults, some were as young as five years! "They don't mutate crimanals!" Gear gasped "They mutate children!" The sound of Gear's voice cuased Bill, to stir from his sick , demented sleep, He opened his eyes and saw the aliens looking at him At first Bill thought they were Bird-men released from their tanks but than he saw they had shark,-like teeth and pointy elf like ears. Bill looked at his hands and saw they were covered with coarse white fur and had hoof like nails. Bill looked pleadingly at the creatures Zander, looked at the poor bull-boy, and his heart bled, He raised his hand with razor sharp claws on the end of each finger, he slashed the glass tube and Bill tumbled out, coughing and fumbling! "Thanks bird-man, Can we release the others?" Steve Ellen One by one the tubes containing Bill's friends were slashed open. First Jim tumbled out, wet and gasping for air, then Minsk and Jordan. "I don't know who you guys are," Jim said to Zander, "but I'm sure glad you came by. How did you happen to come here?" "Let's get out of here first," Bill said. "We're not free as long as we're in these passages." As they ran along Zander explained that they were looking for a spaceship. "We''ll help you find it," Bill said. "You helped us and now we'll help you." Twiga In the the darkness they bumbed into an opague tank that had been lying horazantaly"What's this?" Asked the now catfish-Bob Light began to shine from the tank, the lid opened automaticly, Out of the tank a Unicorn-woman, naked as day, rose from the fluid Her coat was a pinto mix of copper brown and snowy white. Her mane and tail tassle were jet black, Her horn was indigo and her eyes were purple The other Manimals were amazed! Never in their wildest dreams did they hope they would see a real unicorn! The Unicorn regarded them through deep sympathetic eyes, Just than she swooned and would've fallen back in the tank if Zander had not cuaght her "Hey I know who that is!" Bob said adjusting his glasses "That's Matoaka Redfeather! The world famous genetist!" "Why is Ultratech turning her into an Underwoman?" Minsk asked "She has been an outspomkan critic of the creation of Underpeople." Bob shrugged "Maybe Ultratech did this to silence her." "Look!" Jim exclamed "I see a spaceship!" Jim was right and he was not right, the ship was really a flying tour fan of the Rock band Limozeen. Suddenly the alarm sounded "Manimal Escape! Manimal Escape" Said a robot "Quick let's get out of here!" Jim squeked in his new squirrel voice They headed for the space van, and escaped breaking through the wall in the process Limozeen was not pleased "Gary!" Larry shouted "Those freaks are getting away in our Tour Van! Hit him with some Hot Lixx!" Steve Ellen "That was close!" Bill said. "How dod you know how to operate this van, Zander?" Gear answered, "He has a knack with anything that has a control panel. But he has no sense of direction!" "That's right," Zander said. "I can drive this thing but I don't know where to go." "None of us do," Bill said. "Then it will be up to me to guide us," Matoaka said. "Unicorns have a natural sense of direction." Twiga They drove through the asteriod belt between, Mars and Jupiter,It wasen't long before everyone's stomach began growling. Gear checked her provistions bag but it seemed as though they were out of food. "Not to worry." Bill said "If I know Space Vans there has to be an ermenecy supply somewhere." Bill kicked a metal door open and it swung open revealing... "A whole batch of plankton noodle soup!" Bob exclaimed "Plankton what?!" Revel asked "It's like ramen" Jim said "Only made out of alage They Manimals began to add water and to microwave the soup, Zander looked at the list of ingrediants on the box "Let's see, alage, corn syrup, high furctose,... PVC?!" Zander looked at Gear and Revel, they all nodded their heads in agreement and they shoved all the soup out the airlock "We were eating that!" Jim said miffed "You eat poison!" Zander scolded "We need to get you some real food ASAP!" "The closest Restaraunt is on Moonport." Jordan said " And we passed that a couple miles back." Matoaka made a u-turn and started heading backwards "Looks like we're heading to Moonport." She said Steve Ellen As they eased into a smooth docking at the Moonport Bar and Grill, Jim said, "I wonder if this van has been reported as stolen? Things could get pretty hot for us." "Food first," Bill said. "It feels like I haven't eaten in a week." "Let's have the food brought out to the van so we can get away quick if we need to." "Awwww," Gear said. "I wanted to see the inside of Moonport!" "That can be done," Matoaka said. "You and Revell check out the inside, but hurry back. We will wait in the van for the food." The speaker next to the van crackled to life and a distorted voice said, "Order please?" Matoaka looked at the others. "What do you want?" Twiga Bill said "I want the Seaweed Salad.""I'd like the nut salad." Jim said "I'll have Geflete Fish." Bob said "Raw fish for me." Said Minsk "I'll share what Jim has." Jordan murmured meekly Matoaka ordered a Garden Salad without any dressing, The guy on the other end of the speaker sounded disgusted "What revolting meals!" He said "I think I might have to try some of them myself." Gear an Revel hurried in, Zander chated with the Manimals "I think we're inevitably going to need clothes." Matoaka mused finally noticeing that she was naked "Are there any clothing stores, here?" Zander asked "Yes, Moonport has everything Paydran has." The Unicorn said "Only better!" Bill interjected wrapping a blanket around his middle to cover his 'little Billy' "Moonport is a more liberal than Paydran." Bob said getting a blanket "They still have underpeople, but at least people eat real food, and homelessness dosen't exsist!" "Food's here!" Revel said The Ave's had each ordered a live squirming fish, instead of just raw fish like Minsk As they tucked in, Matoaka felt she had to break the silence "Has anyone heard of Planet Black Beauty? The sanctuary for fujitive underpeople?" Steve Ellen There was a chorus of no's, except for Revel who said, "I think I heard of it," but nobody believed he really had. Matoaka munched on her salad as she spoke. "It's called Black Beauty because it's completely covered with a layer of stealth material. From a distance the planet looks black. It cannot be seen from space until you are very near it. Thus it has escaped detection by the Ultratech patrol ships and thus it has become a secret sanctuary for any underpeople who manage to get there." "Wow!" Zander said. "Sounds like a place we could hide." "I don't want to spend my life hiding," Bill said. "I want to do something with my life. I want to change the way things are. I want to destroy Ultratech and it's evil ways." Matoaka smiled. "All fine goals, Bill, but we can't achieve them by ourselves. On Planet Black Beauty we may find others who feel the way we do and will help us." "Yeah!" Zander said. "Let's go there!" Twiga They began to rev up the van when they heard a courus of whining and grunting..."Oh, Shoot." Matoaka said "We're out of feul." "What sort of feul do we need?" Jim asked looking concerned "Pultonium, I think..." Matoaka said a little unsure of herself "Well I sure hope Moonport has plutonium stations among other things." Zander nodded semi-sarcasticly Jim frisked his bushy tail trying to think of a way out of this situation "Do you think we can get out and push this van to the station?" He asked "In case you've forgotton." Zander tapped his foot "You're fujative Underpeople and can't be seen by common humans." Suddenly they felt something pushing on the van, It was a colletion of large robots "Either this is Moonport's equivilant to a tow truck..." Bob murmured "Or... WE"RE BEING TAKEN BACK TO ULTRATECH!" The van was pushed into a garage and they started heading deeper underground "Oh no!" Bob cried "We're heading to "Downdeep-Downdeep!" "Oh please, Moonport dosen't have a Downdeep." A voice said "Who said that?" Bob asked A shadowy figure approached a van, as he moved into the light they saw a tall thin young man, with carroty red hair, a long nose and pale snowy skin with a slight green tinge "I am Ichabod Crane." He said "I'm am the toxic courtisan and I can help you get to Planet Black Beauty. Won't you come in so I can explain?" Steve Ellen "How do we know we can trust you?" Jim said. "It's alright," Matoaka said. "I can read his aura. He's for real or else he has taken psychic cheating to a level no one believed possible." Ichabod led the group into his living quarters, a tastefully furnished apartment with a curved white leather sofa and a holographic TV. "Cool!" Zander said. "I haven't seen a decent TV since I was living in the palace." "You lived in a palace?" Ichabod asked. "Oh, don't get him started," Bill said. "He's got a thousand stories about how great life was in his famous palace." "It WAS great!" Zander said. "Way better than anything on Paydran. But this Moonport apartment is pretty nice. Can you get the galactic sports channel, Ichabod?" "Ew," Jordan said. "Who want's to watch a bunch of three-headed aliens try to play soccer?" "I do!" Revel said. Twiga "Please be seated." Ichabod instructed"I may not be an underperson." Ichabod explained "But I very nearly did become one, becuase my parents were two of the most wanted murderers, in all of Paydran." Ichabod sighed and pushed a button. A twenty-something Pig-woman in a French maid outfit came by with a pitcher of ice water and a glass. "Thank you Martbell that's all for now." With that he dismissed the Lady Swine "I know what you're all thinking and before anyone asks, No that Pig is not my slave or my family's slave. She belongs to the apartment complex and therefore is public property." He poured himself some icewater "Here on the Moon, Manimals are somewhat better off than they are on Paydran, there is no Downdeep, there are more servece jobs and it is considered 'Proper Moonport manners' to show them courtesy." Everyone was astounded! Who knew there were people who actually cared about Underpeople? My Mother and Father bailed me out of a lifetime of slavery by snitching on the other prisoners whist I was still in the womb." He sighed and drank deep from the glass. Reflecting on his life. "But there was a comprimise. I may not have become an underperson but I still had to pay my parent's debt somehow, so...while I was in my mother's womb they hybrided me with plants." "So you're...a plant-man?" Bill asked Ichabod looked annoyed "You're not supposed to put it like that!" He scowled "I am a citizen and an aristocrat to boot, I am only 10 percent plant. While you my long horned friend are 50 percent bovine." Bill blushed and scowled but said nothing else. Ichabod sighed "I may be a citizen but... I'm Ultratech's errand boy. They send me to young ladies suspected of being counterrevolutionarys or otherwise enimies of Ultratech. I court them, promising them wealth and eternal happiness in exchange for their love, all goes well, but than behind closed doors when no one is looking. I plant my toxic kiss on them and they die instantly." "I hate doing the goverment's dirty work but I can't refuse or leave for another planet because than they will kill me! So to make up for the killing I help Underpeople on the run find their way to Black Beauty." He took a book down from the shelf "I am one of the few people permitted to have Old Earth literature." He said "I inherted many of them from my Father, bless his soul, He would sooner die than sell a single book." He gave Matoaka the book "This is the book Black Beauty!" She gasped "By Anna Sewell!" "On the last page is the quote you need to enter Black Beauty, remember it or write it down because I can't give you the book." Matoaka read the final passage "I have nothing to fear, Here my story ends, My troubles are over and am home." (P.S. I base the planet Black Beauty of the real Black Beauty ranch in Texas the largest home for homeless animals, Check out there website! http://www.blackbeautyranch.org/) Steve Ellen [Cool ranch!]"Have you memorized it?" Ichabod said. "Yes. I have nothing to fear, Here my story ends, My troubles are over and am home." "Good. Now I will show you a map of the way to Planet Black Beauty. You must memorize that also because if youa re caught we don't want the information falling into the hands of Ultratech." "I'm not sure I can memorize a whole map!" Matoaka said. "I don't have that good a visual memory." Ichabod chuckled. "Don't worry. You don't have to memorize the whole map. That would be dangerous anyway if you were caught. Instead, each of you will memorize a small piece of the map. Therefore only all of you together know the way to Planet Black Beauty." "But what if something happens to one of us?" "Then you will lose your way. This is truly a case of all for one, one for all, united we stand, divided we fall." Jim threw up his hands. "I'll say! Let's stick together guys! I want to find Black Beauty." Twiga Ichabod had their taank filled up and wished them good luck.The Manimals and they Aves were makinng their way pasy Jupiter when they got a distress signal! "We're getting a distress siignal." Revel said "I know." Zander said "Put it on screen." Revel clicked the HV buttun and an image of Tropfor, the Octo Seer appeared "Ah the royal Prince and Princess, all grown up!" Tropfor nodded his wise pulpy head "You must retern to Planet Ava. Your Mother and Father need your help and..." Than Tropfor noticed the Manimals around Zander and Gear "Wait a minute Zander, who are those in the ship with you? Did you let Underpeople sneak on board?" Steve Ellen "No," Zander said. "I mean, yes, they are Manimals but no they did not sneak on board. These are good friends of ours who are helping us find-" "Shhhh!" Gear whispered. "We must preserve the secret!" "Uh... good friends of ours. We're all traveling together." "You must hurry to Ava," Tropfor said. "THere is trouble." "What kind of trouble?" "That's what worries me most. I've lost contact with them. Just hurry. Go!" Zander boosted the Space Van to its maximum speed and soon they were in orbit around Ava. "That's strange that we have received no radio contact from Ava Air Control," Zander said. "What do you suppose has happened?" Gear stared at the radio monitor screen. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to enter the atmosphere so we can see what's going on." "Is it safe?" "You mean will someone fire on us? I don't know. This space van is pretty small. It would be obvious we're unarmed. I can't imagine someone just blasting us out of the sky without questioning us first." "Well, I can imagine it." The radio panel squawked. "Shhh!" Gear said. "I think someone's trying to contact us." Twiga Someone did contact, It was the Ava Commander Z'nuff"Are you the Prince and Princess?" The voice crackled on the radio "We are."Zander replied "Oh! Jubilation! How have we waited for this day!" To fast Phoenix Fighter ships flew by and helped the Space Van get down Z'nuff told them as they were landing, "Brace yourselves my leaders this will be very hard for you." "Hard for us?" Zander asked as he opened the door. As the door opened Gear and Zander were pulled out of the van and lifted up! Zander and Gear noticed that all the Aves had a number tatooed over there heart in black "You are have been branded!" Zander gasped "B-but t-that would mean... No it coulden't be! "Yes." Sighed on Old man Ave "The Bettas have enslaved the majority of our people and we were the ones who escaped!" Zander felt his solem royal responisbilities set his rightious indignation on fire! "They have gone too far!" He cried "No big-brained bugs are enslaving my people!" "The Prophacy has said that only you and your sister can save our planet now." Said a seer. Revel sighed and turned to the underpeople "Sorry guys but I don't think we can head to Black Beauty yet, We have too much work to do here." Steve Ellen That night the lights in the Space Van remained on as Matoakaq, Bill, Jim, Minsk, and Jordan stayed up late arguing over whether they should stay and help the Aves or proceed on to Planet Black Beauty. Bill pounded the table. "Listen! Even if we wanted to leave you are forgetting something. We each possess knowledge of only a part of the map of the way to Black Beauty. We need Zander and Gear and Revel to complete the map" "I don't see that as a major obstacle," Jim said. "Zander and Gear and Revel will tell us what we need to know. Even if they can't, there are still other ways to Black Beauty. Our goal should be overthrowing Ultratech and the freeing of the Underpeople, not remaining here to fight the Betas." Matoaka raised her hand for silence. "It may be that all these things are interrelated. Does Ultatech support the Betas or the Aves? What about Planet Black Beauty? Are they on the side of the Betas or the Aves? If Ultratech is backing the Betas and Black Beauty is on the side of the Aves, then wouldn't our helping the Aves fight the Betas make it more likely that Black Beauty would help us?" Jordan put her hands to her head. "Ouch, I have a headache from all this political discussion. I am only a squirrel. You guys decide what to do." Twiga (Now back to REALITY!)"What happened after that Papa?" Frito Bandito asked Bill smacked his mouth dryly, "Can I continue this story tommorow Short Stuff? Papa Bull has run out of saliva." "Yeah you've pretty much used up all your Quailty Time, with the kids." Grandpa Mudgeman said "Time to go?"Jeffery-Beffery asked "Yes, Space Aliens, Mutants and Toxic Kisses. It is definetly time for your nap!" Steve Ellen "Did you like that story?" Bill said. "Yes," Jeffrey-Beffrey said. "But can we watch Flopsy Flops and the Fuzzy Bunch next time?" "You like them better than my story?" "Your story is okay. Did it really happen?" Twiga Bill had to think about what he should answer."Of course it's not real." He said kissing Jeffery's forehead. "At least not in our reality. But if you want to know what I think, I think that for everytime a new story is made up, a new universe is created to house that story." "Really?" Jeffery-Beffery asked "Anyone who thinks otherwise never read Crisis of Infinate Earths." Bill said Bill looked at his two little munchkins, both were dark skinned like their African-American mother, Jeffery-Beffery had inherited Bill's blond hair while Frito Bandito had curly black hair "You can watch Flospy Flop before I come to visit tommorow." Bill said "But when I come at 9 PM we're going back to the story." Bill, thought of something "In fact tommorow I'm going to make a book out of what I wrote, with pictures too!" Bill headed for home, "For a 16 year old I make a pretty decent Father." He said to himself He came back home to his own father who was watching TV, drinking beer "Hey Sonny boy!" Said Mr. Brandy, "Want a cold one?" "I'm feeling too good to get drunk." Bill lowed "Got any Diet Coke?" "Sould be in the fridge" Twiga The next day, Bill wrote down everthing he told his kids yesterday and labled it Chapter 1: The BeginningFor the remander of the hour he began writing and illastrating Chapter 2, "Man, man." Bill said to himself "This some pretty good junk I made up, If I had books like this when I was a tot I probally would have read more and watched less TV...Well maybe not watch less TV but would've read more... I could use work on my illastrating though..." When he got back to the Mudgeman household, He found the two boys as usaual, watching those banal PBS shows "That tape better be almost done, Because we're going to shut it off." "But Papa, Jeffery-Beffery complained "Flopsy Flops is about to cross the street!" "Is Floppy Flop with a parent and/or guardian?" Bill asked "Yes." The twin answered in unison "Than you know you won't get run over." Bill said popping the tape out of the VCR "Shareing, Taking turns, How to cross a street. You go to preschool to learn those things, You watch TV to be entertained," The kids reluctantly got up. "Don't worry." Bill lowed "I put a lot of pictures in this book, so you won't have to over work your imagenations trying to picture everything in your heads." Chapter 2: Enter the Darkness... Ichabod woke up from a drugged sleep in a pitchy black room, His head felt like a brick "Are you awake?" Asked a husky purr of a voice Ichabod opened is eyelids to see he was tied to an armchair with the footrest up, He looked to the doorway and saw what can only be a Cat-woman. She was tall but stocky, hinging on pudgy, her fur was long, like a Ragdoll cat. Her eyes were deep brown and glowed with a light that illumenated her face. "I'm not sure." Ichabod looked at her attire and saw she was wearing bell-bottom trousers, a disco jacket with rinestones and... a police badge? Suddenly it all clicked "Are you... a Girlygirl?" "You bet your sweet brown boots." She smiled "Than I can only assume I'm awake...but I'm very puzzled... have I been arrested for something?" "Don't sweat." She said "My name is Marzipan, and I know you're known throughout Moonport as the Manimal's Savior." She leaned on the wall and pressed a button labled MUTE so the speakers woulden't hear what she said next "I want to go to Black Beauty and live free of bondage, I can help you if you will help me." "Ur... Sure of course." Ichy gulped "But what am I here for?" "Ultratech suspects you've helped a sextet of Manimals escape the Solar System." Steve Ellen Ichabod stared thoughtfully at Marzipan. "If Ultratech thought that I was doing that then I would be dead now, after first being subjected to a mind probe that would suck every thought I ever had out of my brain." Marzipan smiled. "Why do you think I'm here? What you've described is exactly what Ultratech wants to do to you. But I've planted false data in the network. They think you live in apartment d-937, not here in j-245." "Who really lives in d-937?" "An android that looks a lot like you. We've thought this through. We have a plan to escape." "Who is 'we'?" Ichabod said. "I have a couple of friends who also want to escape. One of them is supplying the ship. It's not much but it will get us there. And you will supply the map." "How do you know I even have such a map?" The cat girl grinned. "Don't play with me Ichabod. I wouldn't risk my life to defy Ultratech if I didn't know you had some kind of map to Black Beauty. And it's not too late for me to mind probe you. Would you rather tell me about the map that way and lose your mind doing it? Can't you see I'm giving you a chance to live?" Ichabod lay his head back against the chair. "I don't know what you're giving me. This could be an Ultratech trick. Once you are on Black Beauty you could contact Ultratech and tell them where it is." This was a bluff on Ichabod's part. He knew the stealth layer surrounding Black Beauty permitted no radio transmissions. But he was curious to see what Marzipan might already know. "I will allow myself to be searched thouroughly, including X-rays for any embedded micro-transmitters. Surely that will satisfy everyone?" Ichabod looked at her. "Alright. I have made a decision..." Twiga "I'll help you get to Black Beauty." He saidMarzipan mewed with joy! She was about to kiss him on the lips when he quickly said "Ms Marzipan, I should warn you my kiss is poison!." "Marzipan simply licked her lips and muttered something that sounded like, "Oh darn." They quickly exited the room, and headed back to the family apartment. "Meanwhile, Jim and the others were in the Van while the Aves were in the Palace trying to discuss how to solve the Betta problom. Jim twisted and turned, contorting himself into weird positions... Finaly he shouted "That's it!" "What's it?" Bill asked, who was playing cards with Bob "I know how we can help the Aves and our fellow Underpeople at the same time!" Jim squeaked "It's so simple!" "Well don't keep us in suspence." Minsk said "Let's hear it!" "The Aves are low on soldiers, so what if we got some Underpeople of Paydran to serve as soldiers?" "That sounds pretty good acutully!" Bill said "Thousands of Manimals are bred and conditioned for the military..." Steve Ellen "Sure!" Jim said. "The only problem is getting them to Ave." "Could we steal more Space Vans?" Jordan said. Jim rolled his eyes at her. "Get real. Do you think there are hundreds of Space Vans waiting around to be stolen." Minsk glared at Jim. "Don't be so sarcastic just because she is a female." Bill snapped his fingers. "I've got it! School buses!" "Huh?" "The space schoolbuses, the ones they use to bring in the rural kids that live on the mining asteroids. All the space buses are kept overnight at Moonport. They aren't locked up becuae nobody would want to steal a schoolbus." "Except us," Jim said. Twiga They came with they're plan to the Aves. Z'nuff laughed large laughs"Bless you Underpeople, I would have never thought of that! But I don't think you need to steal buses, the Ave Airfleet will provide transportaion." "What worries me." Gear said "Is will the Manimals come willingly, or will they just think we're trying to use them like humans use them." "We could come with." Jim said "For extra affect." Meanwhile at Ichabod's apartment there was a knock at the door, a shaggy unkept Fox-boy was at the door. "Is Marzipan here?" He asked "I am." Marzipan answered "What is it Rook?" "Our revolution and escape have been postponed." Rook panted "We've discovered a leak." "A leak?" Marzipan gasped astounded "Yes apparantly one of our newer members was acutually a lady of Ultratech disgused as a Dragon-woman! Needless to say our leader has tied her up and hid her deep underground until we decide what to do with her." "What should I do?" The Cat-woman asked "Stay here where your safe." Disguse yourself as a servant and pretend you live here." "Oh." She said "Well this is just akward Ichabod was feeling a bit akward too, he wasen't expecting this. "Why don't I run down and get some dinner." He said trying to be helpful "What do you like?" "New England Clam Chowder." She mewed Meanwhile at Ava. Z'nuff explaned to Zander and Gear the meaning of their Royal Medalions "These are no ordanary jewels." He explaned "They can turn into weapons as well as musical instruments" Zander touched his medaltion and it turned into an electric guitar. Gear touched hers and it turned into a keyboard! "You have a medaltion too Revel." Z'nuff nodded to the Blue Ave "Press yours." Revel did and it became a horn that looked very much life a saxaphone! "Each of these instruments is also a laser gun you fire by playing it." Meanwhile back at the Moonport, Bar and Grill, Ichabod sipped his herbal tea waiting for the food to be ready "Ichabod Crane, Ichabod Crane, Your order is ready." Ichabod went to the counter to pick up the soup "I don't know how you can eat that stuff." The cashier said "It what?" Ichy asked innocently "Anything! Fish, meat, vegtables, disgusting!" "Ichabod scowled "Your from Paydran aren't you?" He asked skepticly "I'm a goverment discoarager." Said the greasy faced teen "I'm payed by Ultratech to discoarage the eating of Organic Food." Ichabod smirked "Paid Propaganda boy eh? Than tell me, Why should humans eat nothing but Algae mixed with chemacals?" "Omnivorous creatures are nothing more than living garbage disposals!" Said the squeaky voiced teen "Pigs, wolverines and other oppritunistic beasts are all of low stature. Humanity will never evolve beyond its animal roots and never become equal to the beyonders unless we can learn to live by one thing alone, The all-nutrious alage!" "Ha, ha, ha" Ichabod said sarcasticly "You're full of it aren't you? The truth of the matter is that a willingness to eat anything is what give us humans intelligence, adaptability, not to mention a supirior sense of taste, beside it is better for our digestive systems." He walked out "Enjoy your infant vomit!" He called back "It's called Baby Puke." The Teen held up his Algae drink "And it does a body good!" Steve Ellen "This is good," Marzipan said, sipping her clam chowder. "It is amazing that the same kitchens that feed Baby Puke to the masses can also make a decent clam chowder." "Maybe it comes in a can and they just reheat it." "It's good wherever it comes from. Have you distributed all the flyers urging manimals to join the revolution?" Ichabod sighed. "We tried to but Ultratech guards were right behind us tearing them down as fast as we put them up." "What about the internet?" "Blocked," Ichabod said. "Any site we put up is hacked into by Ultratech scientists. Within hours our slogans look foolish. Resist Ultratech! becomes Relish Ultratech! and Let the Revolution Begin! becomes Ultratech Stamps Out Sin!" "But how are we to get enough manimals together? The Aves are sending a fleet to pick them up. Shall we stand there and say, 'Sorry, we couldn't find any manimals'? We will be fools or worse and never believed again. We MUST contact lots of manimals and fast!" Twiga Suddenly and without warning a flyer fell into the room."What's it say?" Ichabod asked "Free concert for the Underpeople." Marzipan read "Featuring new Space Band: Ava Underground." Suddenly, Marzipan gave Ichabod a knowing look "I think the Aves have done the planning for us." She grinned "They'll put on a harmless charity show but what they are really doing is spreding the word of revolution, and it will all be Ultratech's nose!" Meanwhile the Aves were on there way to Paydran, Zander, Revel and Gear with their Manimal allies in the space van the Ave Phoinix Ship beside them "I've been thinking." Bill said "If you three are going to masquerade as an underground band, than we might as well be your Roadies." "Our what?" Revel asked "Roadies." Jim said "Road Crew. I'll be the instrument repair!" "I'll be team mechanic!" Bob said "I'll handle finances." Jordan squeaked "I'll be a bouncer." Bill lowed "I'll also be a bouncer." Said Minsk "I'll be the Driver and the Healer." Matoaka neighed They played deep in the Downdeep-Downdeep. In the dark luminous caves where the lords and ladies of ultratech would dare not show their faces. Every kind of Manimal from Mammal to Fish appeared Zander weilding his guitar like a rock ninja, Belted out his song... "Let’s have a party there’s a full moon in the sky It’s the hour of the wolf and I don’t want to die I’m so happy dancing while the grim reaper Cuts, cuts, cuts But he can’t get me (I’m as) Clever as can be, and I’m very quick, but don’t forget No one lives forever!!!" The beast people were estatic and sang along. The cats mewed it, the dogs barked it, the sheep bleated it, the cattle lowed it. Meanwhile the Avan generals walked through the crowd handing out flyers. After the show all the Manimal guest boarded the great Phoinix ship on a one way trip to Ava. Steve Ellen The ship landed at the Avan spaceport of Flamingo Gulch. As the manimals walked down the exit ramp they were handed military uniforms to wear. "Huh? What's this?" a turtle asked. "There is no free lunch," an Ave near the ramp said. "You are fighting for your freedom now, your right to hear more concerts." "I like that right!" the turtle said and tried on the outfit. "How do I look?" "Move on!" said the Ave. "It's not a fashion show. You look fabulous. Don't forget to pick up a gun at the next counter." While the manimals were being organized into fighting groups, Matoaka had a conference with Bill and Jim. "I still want to go to Black Beauty, you know?" "Yes," Jim said, "but don't you agree the fight here is also important?" "It is, but I don't want to get bogged down in years of fighting. Let's try for one quick splashy battle just to show them we care and then we'll move on to cover our own agenda." "Why don't we pick a fight with the Bettas ourselves? A little one-on-one action! We could ambush a Betta patrol scout group and wipe them out." "You're so bloodthirsty," Matoaka said. "I like it. And we could take a news reporter with us. The publicity would make us look good. Then we could get the heck out of here." Twiga The Bettas were busy in there ship, very busy indeed"Does this spacesuit make me look fat?" Asked Agent 0 "Don't bother me with silly questions like that!" Barked Agent 123 "I've got evil plans do work out!" Meanwhile The Manimals had taken the Space Van out to find the Bettas "I've got a bad feeling about this." Jordan said "What if the Bettas blows us into next century?" "Relax Jordan." Jim soothed "We've got hyperjets." Bill was busy with a massage chair that Limozeen had instaled onto the Space Van "Man O Man!" Bill sighed, Those Space Rockers really know how live it up 123 noticed something on the scanner, "We've got a small ship approching us." He observed He called to the gunner "Fire a warning shot, across, their nose" The Betta gunner fired a bunch of shots, some just barely grazed the paint on the van "Oh Shoot!" Matoaka exclamed "They're better armed than I thought" "Careful you idiot!" Scolded 123 "I said across their nose not up it!" "Sorry sir trying my best!" The gunner turned around revealing he was cross-eyed "We're outmatched and outgunned." Jordan said nervously "Let's leave." "For once I'd agree." Matoaka said "Buckle up everyone we're going into hyperactive!" Steve Ellen There was a grinding noise and the van lurched to one side. "Oh crap!" Jim said. "What was that?" Bill checked the data screens. "I think that last shot from the Betas cracked our left rear hyper. We made it into hyperactive but I'll be damned if I know if we can make it back to normal space." "But we have to make it back. We can't spend the rest of our lives in hyperactive. We'll go crazy or starve to death." "I know that!" Jim said. "We'll have to do a repair. Who's done a space walk before?" There was total silence. "Okay," Jim said. "Let's not panic. How hard could a space walk be? You put on the spacesuit, you go outside, you adjust the left rear hyper. Who knows how to adjust a hyper?" More silence. "Still no need to panic. There must be some kind of handbook or manual onboard. Jordan, check the glove compartment." "I don't see one," Jordan said. "Just some maps, a minipack of Kleenex, a ballpoint pen that doesn't write, some sugar packets from McD's. some-" "Alright, fine, nothing there, we'll improvise." Bill said. "I'll go outside and see what I can do." "I'll go with you," Jim said. Twiga Zander paced and fidgeted in his royal room, he wondered where the Manimals were, they said they were going out to check on the the new Manimals but that was like 2 hours ago."I've got a bad feeling about this" He mumrmured <ZANDER!> A shriek telepathed into his mind "GAH!" Zander's feathers stood on end for the telephy was so loud <Matoaka?> He thought back <Is that you?> <Yes.> She said <We need help. We're stuck in hyperspace we can't even get outside to fix our hyperjets.> <Why are you in hyperspace?> Zander sounded like a parent with a child who had taken the car on a stormy night <I don't know why we did it!> Matoaka sounded exasperated <It seemed like a good idea at the time> <I'll send a space tow truck> Steve Ellen When the space tow truck arrived Matoaka was frantic. "It's Bill and Jim! They've floated away!" "What?!" said Arnie the tow man. "How?" "They went outside to see if they could fix it and their safety rope snapped and off they went, slowly drifting away." "Do you still have radio contact with them?" "Yes, but it's getting faint. I'll switch it on... Jim! Can you hear me?" "Yes! Our air is very low! Good bye, Matoaka. It's been a wonderful partnership even though it didn't last very long. Please tell my mama I love her. You can have all my things." "You're not going to die, Jim! The tow man is here! He'll come get you! Is Bill okay?" "No problem here," Bill said. "I have seen the white light. There are angels all around me sing glorious hymns. Hallelujah! Now I will enter paradise!" "Bill! Bill! Pull yourself together! You're not going to die!" Arnie the tow man zipped up his jacket. "I better hurry. Those guys sound right on the edge." Matoaka pushed him toward the door. "Yes, hurry!" Twiga Jim and Bill were safely brought back from the nothing at all.Also they were out cold. Arnie brought them back to Ava where they were taken to large beds to rest "They may be out for a while." Arnie said "Hyperspace tends to be coma inducing" "Is a coma painful?" Revel asked "Heck no!" Arnie replied "You relive long lost summers, kiss girls from high school! It's like when your favorite TV program does a clip show." "Uh huh." Zander nodded "When will they snap out of this trance is what I want to know." "Should only take a couple of hours." Arnie said "I wonder what they are dreaming?" Minsk asked Bill was dreaming of back when he was a street urchin. Living in an abandoned building with his gang of ruffians. The Homeless Teenagers of Paydran were turned loose on the streets by their parents on their 13th birthday in order to avoid turning them into to Tax collecters. The Homeless Urchins actually lived pretty well aside from the ever-present fear of being caught. They had a secret monoply, it was not liquior or gold or anything like that, it was books! They serched garbage dumps and abandoned buildings for books of all kinds, they even took in magazines and newspapers dating back to before when Paydran was Earth They, knew all right, that the rich twits on Moonport would pay good money for literture, but the urchins weren't interested in money, they wanted organic food! So they simply traded books in exchange for food. Bill woke up from his remembering "Where am I?" He asked "You're back on Ava." Gear said Steve Ellen Bill shook his head to clear it. "How is the war going?" "Not bad," Gear said. "We're hitting the Betas pretty hard. Of course they keep hitting us back but you have to expect that in a war. I figured you would be on your way to Black Beauty by now." "That's what I figured, too, but sometimes life doesn't deal you the cards you expect." "You play cards?" "Sometimes," Bill said. "Why? You want a game?" "Only if we play for money. I don't waste my time on cards for fun." Bill shrugged. "I think it's fun... but I don't mind spicing it up with some cash. What about the war?" "Don't worry about the war. We're between battles right now. Nobody is expecting anything to happen tonight." Suddenly there was a huge thudding noise that made their bones shake and the lights went out. "Did something happen?" Bill said. Twiga "Holy BEEP on a BEEP sandwich!" Bill exclaimed"OK, I've had enough of this fooling around." Revel said "I'm going to kick some tail!" He flew out to where the Betta spaceship was attacking, he pressed his medalion to summon his horn. He took a deep breath and blew the wildest notes you ever heard! The noise was so thunderous it shattered all the Betta's windows and stripped the metal off the ship! The bettas plumeted into the city below. A SPLUT was heard as they hit the pavement "OMG!" Gear exclamed "Revel that was amazing!" Revel twirled his horn like it was a gun "Got the old timey guts I s'pose" He grinned "Revel," Gear sounded hesitant "I've can't believe I've never noticed that..." Zander cleared his throat "Keep in mind my dear sister." He said sternly "You are a princess he is a servant." Gear frowned and Revel glared at Zander but neither said anything and went there seperate ways "What the heck just happened?" Bob asked "I mean not Revel blowing the Bettas to bits, I mean what..." "Clearly Ava is not the utopia I thought it to be." Minsk said darkly "28th century technology, 19th century morals." Meanwhile at Moonport. Ichabod had some good news for Marzipan "I got you a one way trip to Black Beauty." He said handing her the ticket "You won't have to risk your life fighting in a war like others are doing, you get special privalge." Marzi clasped the ticket and purred "You don't know how much this means to me." She said "It's the least I can do." Ichabod blushed "You saved me from Ultratech Marzipan than grabbed Ichy's face and kissed him SMACK on the lips! The instant the kiss broke Marzipan fainted dead away! "Marzi!" Ichabod gasped "Mum!" Ichabod shouted to his mother "Quick get the antidote! Marzi's been poisoned!" His mother Pamela quickly ran to fetch the only cure for Ichabod's toxic kiss. Ichabod cradled the cat-woman in his arms weeping with fear and grief "You stupid, stupid cat! You knew my kiss was toxic! Oh Marzi please don't die!" Pamela, came back with the anti-toxen and popped in the cat's mouth, quick as a flick. "She needs to rest now." She said "Needs at least one night to recover." Back on Ava, the royal messanger Clucker brought a video-phone to Matoaka "Mistress Matoaka." Clucker said "Someone requests to speak with you." "Who could possibly know where I am?" Matoaka said "When I was turned into a Manimal I was taken off the white pages." Nonetheless she turned on the com. The face of her mother, Bitter Flower appeared and true to her name her Mother looked awfully bitter. Matoaka was shocked! "Er...Greeting Mother..." She said meekly "I'm sorry to greet you under such circumstances but..." "Don't but me!" Bitter Flower barked "I know what you did!" "What did I do?" Matoaka asked in a panic "You didn't want to marry Pyroth so you turned yourself into an underwoman!" "That's absurd!" Matoaka neighed in a unicorn voice "Why would I become a slave just to avoid Pyroth." "You ran away on your wedding day!" Bitter Flower snapped "We serched all other for you and if it weren't for the Honorable Lex Luthor we would never have found you! Matoaka stamped her cloven hoof 'Damn Lex Luthor' she thought "I can't have you married now that an underwoman and I can't bring you home. And I bet this is excatly what you wanted!" Matoaka shrank from her mothers berating, her ears limp as petals and her tail between her legs Zander heard the shouting from across the room and and seeing the poor unicorn so humbled made his heart bleed "Wait..." Zander said "Matoaka didn't turn herself into a manimal, she was kidnapped, no, she ran away cuase she wanted to marry me." "What?" Matoaka nickered Zander slipped one of his rings of a finger and placed it on hers "See?" He showed Bitter Flower Steve Ellen Bitter Flower msiled. "My daughter marrying a prince? Hahahahahaha! That's a good one! Hahahaha! Yes, I'm sure you two will live happily ever after. Hahaha! Okay, you gave me a laugh. Maybe I wasn't so bitter for just a minute there. Thanks for that, daughter, even if you did disappoint me in every other way." "I love you, mother," Matoaka said. "Sure you do. That's why you break my heart every chance you get. Fine. You have your own life to live. I get it. But don't expect me not to be bitter about it. Good-bye!" The com screen went blank. "Wow," Zander said. "She is really bitter." Matoaka sighed. "You can imagine what it was like growing up in that house." Zander put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. "I feel your pain. You can keep that ring." Matoaka blushed and quickly took off the ring. "Oh, I couldn't! I appreciate what you tried to do. I know it was just to fool my mother... Here, take your ring back." Twiga "Keep it," Zander said modestly "In case you or I run into her again...""Zander." Matoaka said very softly "You are aware Underpeople can't get married right?" "Can't marry?" Zander gasped "Like, not even with each other?" "Underpeople are never acknowalged as people." Matoaka said "We have no weddings but some of us form companionships and people sometimes slip and call us husband or wife. We are never even taked to hospitals because they think it's easier to create new manimals than repair sick ones so any Manimal who sneezes four times or vomits once is taken away to the slaughterhouse." Zander's face grew deathly pale when he heard that, it was so cruel, he coulden't believe it! No one deserved such treatment! He swallowed and regained his composure "Keep the ring." He said "As a tolken of friendship." Meanwhile on Moonport, Marzipan woke up in a forgiving bed full of archaic goose feathers, she felt very well rested but had some trouble remembering how she fell asleep in the first place "Good morning." came a voice soft as honey Marzi turned around to see she was in bed ...with Ichabod! "OMIGOSH!" She flustered "What happeded? Did we have sex or something?" "Don't be dramitic." Ichabod said flatly "You kissed me and you got poisoned." "Oh." The cat relized "I did... didn't I?" "Why did you do it?" Ichabod asked "I know you're not stupid or forgetful so what on Earth possesed you?" "I'm a Girlygirl." Marzi said "It is my job to entice young men to impossible delights I'm like a geisha, It's my job to invite love." She sighed "I just lost my head, Ichabod...I am an animal after all." "You're not an animal." Ichabod said firmly "You are a human in cat shape." Steve Ellen Pamela knocked on the door."Ichabod? Are you and Marzipan ready for breakfast?" The three of them sat at the kitchen table eating toast and drinking coffee while the TV announcer gave the latest reports from the Ave-Betta War. Pamela smiled at Marzipan. "How are you feeling this morning? I'm so sorry my son's toxic lips almost killed you." "That's alright," Marzipan said. "It was my fault. I'd been warned. But Ichabod is so kissable that I forgot." Pamela stared at her gawky son. Kissable? She never thought she would hear anyone say that about Ichabod. "Why are you staring at me, mom?" Icahbod said. "I'm just proud of my boy who is becoming such a man." "Can the man have some more toast?" Twiga Meanwhile, The Bettas were suffering heavy losses on their side of the playing field,Those Manimal Warriors were tough! Bred from hardened crimmanals or raised on the tough streets of ground level, and all the years of hard labor made them even stronger, One lasor blast barely phased them, two blasts would make them shake their heads, three blasts and well... now you've made them mad. The Bettas appealed to their Queen, the Alpha-Betta "I suppose we will have to enlist help from Paydran." The Queen said The Bettas had a unique relationship with humans, The Bettas were the ones who uplifted them to Sapience! Humans were the Bettas pet project, they had domesticated them like man domesticated dogs for the longest time humans believed they were God and that they had made them out of clay. Than humans figured out that they had evolved from apes and the Bettas began to loose power over them. So the Bettas formulated a new illustion, They came to Earth covevered by invisability cloaks and claimed that they were an alien race called the beyonders who were so Highly Evolved that they had shed their bodies and became on with the universe. High Elder, the one who founded Ultratech and renamed the Planet Paydran believed them implictly for they had whispered in his ear that if humans wanted to become as highly evolved as they were they would have to give all worldly pleasures and emoitions in order to shed their bodies and become living energy fields Marzipan looked at the time and knew she had to catch her flight to Black Beauty or she would be late! She and Ichabod hurried as fast as they could to get to the Phoinix Ship Thankfully they made it just in time, Rook the shaggy Fox-boy was there waiting for Marzipan so were all them members of Marzi's delighful little rebellion. Ichabod wanted to say good-bye but wasen't sure how. So he put a gloved hand on her lips and kissed through the fingers so the lips did not contact "Remember me." Was all he could say The manimals boarded the ship and like a great bird it lifted its wings and flew off into space. Marzipan, Rook and the others were greeted by an Ave stewerdess "Good Morning everyone. I hope you enjoy you're flight." She said Meanwhile on Ava, it seemed that the Bettas had surrendered and everyone was celebrating The Manimals were granted their civil rights and were shipped over to Planet Black Beauty. "I suppose this is good-bye." Matoaka said to Zander "Well," Zander gushed "We knew this day had to come." Gear felt an ominous feeling, she knew the war was not over but she coulden't find the right words to communicate what she needed to say... Steve Ellen Finally she just said the obvious. "It's not over yet." Zander and Matoaka turned to look at her. "What?" "It's not over yet," Gear repeated in a flat voice while staring off into the distance. Zander looked at Matoaka and shrugged. Matoaka patted Gear's shoulder. "It's been a long struggle, honey, but we have won. Now we can relax and set about building a better future. Ave is free of Betta influence. You can return to the palace and live the high life." Gear pulled her eyes away from the distance and back to focus on Matoaka. "I suppose so... but... I don't know. I just have a feeling..." Zander shivered. "Stop it! You're creeping me out." Then he turned to Matoaka. "Good-bye, dear friend. Have a safe and pleasant journey." "Good-bye!" Zander put his arm around his sister as they watched the sleek spaceship lift off slowly at first and then speed up so quickly it was gone in a flash of silver light. "One day I'll go to Black Beauty and see them all again," Zander said. "But now we must rebuild Ave after the destruction of the war." Twiga (Back to reality)"How did you like that next part kids?" The two kids smiled "It was fun. But What's sex?" Bill blushed and relized he had accidenly slipped sex into the story "I'll tell you when you're older." He said Steve Ellen "How much older?" Jeffrey said. "A lot older - when you are shaving." "Shaving? What will I shave?" Frito punched Jeffrey in the arm. "Your face, moron! Don't you know men have beards?" Jeffrey frowned. "That's years from now! Tell me what sex is now." Frito whispered into Jeffrey's ear. "We can look it up on the internet." Jeffrey grinned. "Never mind." Bill looked sideways at the two boys. Whenever one whispered to the other one and then they both grinned like that he knew they were up to something. But he didn't have time to find out. He had to get back to his room and write Chapter 3. "You boys can find out what happened to Flopsy now," Bill said, and inserted the tape back into the VCR. "Your stories are better!" Frito said. Bill smiled. "Thanks! I'll tell you another one soon." Twiga (Hi forgive my breifness but my PC is giving me trouble) When Bill went home he went to his writing.com account and set up a poll asking what should happan next in his story The poll options were A Ultratech and the Bettas join forces to capture the Manimals B Zander gets Matoaka pregnant C Untratech runs out of algae, so resorts to making food out of corpses and calling it Soylent Green After a week the majority vote was for... Steve Ellen Bill stared at the monitor. There was no clear winner. A got 35%, B got 33% and C got 32%. Bill suspected whichever choice had been listed first would have gotten the most votes. "I know what I'll do," Bill murmured. "I'll summarize the story as it is so far and post that as a "What's the next paragraph?" contest. Surely at least one person will respond. Let's see... It took all night for Bill to finish the summary. It's a confusing story, he thought. And what's the deal with Planet Black Beauty? Everbody always seems just about to get there but nobody ever arrives. Maybe that's where the secret lies. Even though Bill had already been up all night, he splashed some cold water on his eyes and began writing. "Chapter Three - Secrets of Planet Black Beauty. The boys will like this," he muttered. It was lunchtime when he finished. "This calls for a sandwich on a fancy bun with plenty of brown mustard and a thick slice of onion," Bill said. Bill often rewarded himself with food. Twiga Chapter 3: Secrets of Planet Black BeautyWhen everyone the Manimals arrived on Planet Black Beauty their eyes opened wide with wonder! Despite being covered with stelth mateireal Sunlight got through to Black Beauty pretty well. There were waterfalls, grassy meadows and fruit and flowers growing everywhere! Jim, Bill and Bob whooped with joy and started doing cartwheels (Or at least tried to) Matoaka lay herself on the flowerbeds and sighed looking up at the clouds "This truly is paradise." She sighed "Welcome heroes." A white stag Manimal with enormous antlers appeared "Come let me greet you." The Manimals rose and went to meet him Matoaka bowed low "You are quite right to call this place Paradise." The Stag said Meanwhile on the Moonport Bar and Grill, Remember that paid Propaganda boy? The Public discoarager well sure Ultratech sends those folks to Moonport restaraunts to spred Ultratech's propaganda but they keep having to replace them because hanging out in those restaraunts surounded by the sound of bacon sizzling and stew bubbling and of coarse all those aromas enevitably break down, and try to sample organic food when no one is looking. So Ultratech created a cybernetic implant called a Little Angel that would choke any paid propaganda boy who tried to swallow organic food. Now a smart person knows how to remove that implant by pressing the jewel in the center of the choker but... most public discoargers are not that smart "I'll just take a little taste of this beer..." The Discoarager (Whose name was XXX) Muttered to himself As soon as that piss-colored brew touched his tougue his little angel went off and he fell to the floor gagging "AHA!" Said the head chef "I knew you coulden't resist my creations for long" "Please..." XXX said "I'm choking..." Head Chef sighed and pressed the jewel on the center of his choker. The implant popped off and XXX panted with releif "Course this means you lose your job." Chef said "And some other jerk will take your place but I'm not bitter." He knelt down to the former discoarager "Want a cookie? It's got raisens." Steve Ellen "I hope you will be happy here," Stag said, "but it is not all play and no work. We do have a mission." "I know," Matoaka said. "To free the underpeople, and we are willing to work at that." "It's much more than just free the underpeople. It's also to create a New World Order, a New Galactic Order, that will free all conscious beings everywhere and make the entire galaxy a paradise." "That's a big vision," Matoaka said. "Yes. But it gives me something to do. Any smaller vision and I would be afraid it was too easy. Now, who wants to go on a secret mission?" "I do," Jim said. "I'm already getting a little bored here. Soft drinks and shuffleboard is fun for awhile, but I crave action and adventure." "Jim!" Jordan said. "You promised me you would rest!" "I'm rested enough. I need action." Jordan put her arm through Jim's. "Then I'm going with you." "That's fine," said Stag. "I have a mission that would be perfect for a husband and wife team. On Paydran at the North Pole there is a fat man in a Santa suit who-" "Santa Claus?" Jim interrupred. "No! A Santa imposter! As you know, Ultratech stamped out the Santa myth when they took over Paydran. But many people secretly honor the old Santa religion. This imposter is an Ultratech agent. He intends to randomly murder 1000 people on Christmas Eve. It will give Santa a bad name, Ultratech believes, and help shut down all the illegal Santa activities." "Wow," Jim said. "When I was kid getting up at 5am on Christmas morning to play with my new electric train under the Christmas tree, I never dreamed that one day I would be helping to defend the very myth that made that train possible." "Then you are up for the job?" asked Stag. "More than up. I am ecstatic! What should I do? Kill the imposter?" Twiga "Pretty much." The Stag said "We have taken that space van you abducted from Limozeen and turned into a state of the art Manimamobile, It has UPS, a DVD player and...""What is a UPS?" Asked Jim "Universal Postioning System." Said the Stag not the least bit annoyed that Jim had interupted him "If we're going to be a team of Rebellous Freedom Fighters," Jim said "We're going to need a team catchphrase, something we all say at the same time." "Do we honestly need such a thing?" Matoaka asked "Seems a little Stereotyped and trite." "Hey it's a classic thing for sci-fi toons." Jim replied "How about a small rap song?" "NO!" Everyone corused "OK Than how about something quick and easy like, 'Let's make tracks'?" "What tracks?" Minsk said "You can't leave tracks in space?" "Nevermind." Jim relented Bill got the new Space Van all feuled up and they all headed to Paydran "I can't believe we're actually heading back." Bob scratched his webbed ear Meanwhile on Paydran the High and Mighty High Elder surveyed his kingdom, "Soon, very soon." High Elder said "Humanity will leave their bodies behind and become beings of pure energy, and finally the beyoders will call us equals." "High Elder! High Elder!" Called his timid secretary Mr. Quirrel, who looked like he crawled out of bad Harry Pothead book "We've run out of algae need to produce foodstuffs!" "What?! Where has it gone?" High Elder demanded "Well ... we used up this Planet's entire supply of plankton..." Steve Ellen "That's incredible!" High Elder said. "Don't we have scientists? Managers? A planning committee?" "Yes, yes, and no," Quirrel said. "Should I implement a planning committee?" "Implement THIS," High Elder said, showing Quirrel his middle finger. "I can't believe mighty Paydran has been reduced to possible starvation. Is it sabotage?" "No, sir, I think it's just lack of plan-" "Shut up! I've never been so angry as I am now. Alright, here's what we do. Immediately everybody goes on half rations to conserve the food supply." "Even you?" Quirrel said. "No, not me, you idiot! I'm the High Elder. Everybody else! How the hell did you get this job, Quirrel?" "I am your son's life partner, sir." "Agghhh! Don't remind me about that sordid relationship," High Elder said. "That's why I hired you, to keep you in my sight as much as possible and away from Junior." "But I love Junior, sir." "Stop! Don't talk! You disgust me! Now get busy with that committee and a ration plan!" The High Elder paced back and forth in his office high atop the tallest tower in the biggest city on Paydran. It was bad, sure, but it had been bad before. Didn't they solve the Crisis of '99? The Big Problem of '08? And the Disaster of '22? Paydran would survive the Great Algae Shortage. He was sure of it. Twiga Meanwhile The Manimals crashed into an anchient theater. It looked like was once Broadway but no one had been in it for ages and it looked like a haunted house"This looks like a great hiding place!" Bill said "We can hang out here and think up a plan about how we're going to kill that imposter Santa!" As the entered into the theater's lower depths they had no idea they were watched "They're definitly Underpeople all right." Said a tough growly voice "I can smell it." "I'll have to take your word for it." Said a smooth saucy voice "I can't smell nearly as good as you." "Whatever I'm going for it." Said the first voice "And with the snarl of a wolf he lept down from the rafters and landed on Bill's back, but Bill was prepared for this and threw the creature of as easily as an Ox throws a cowboy from his back on a rodeo "Who the hell are you!?" Bill lowed The creature stepped into the light revealing that he was a human but with wolf ears, fangs and golden eyes "I'm Wolf." The creature said "The guardian of the Pack "We kill all strangers didn't anyone tell you that?" "Uh,,, No." Jim said "I've never heard of the pack." A slender girlish young man with a monkey tail climbed down from the rafters "We're escappees from the mutation labs" "We escaped before we were finished." Said a big strong teen with fangs and stripes on his cheeks "I'm Liger asnd that skinny guy is Monkey." "There are nine of us all together." Monkey said "Aside from us three There is Horse, Hummingbird,White Tiger, Chameleon, Osprey and Our leader Scorpion." "Your leader is Scorpion as your leader?" Jordan asked as she shuddered "I'm sorry that's just creepy." "He is our leader becuase he is the odest." Monkey said "We don't want any trouble." Matoaka said "Just let us pass through and we will never tell anyone about you." Meanwhile on Ava, Revel and Gear and Zander had no idea of the mission their Manimal friends were in otherwise they would've wanted to be there for them as they had grown quite protecve of them. Steve Ellen "Why are you here in the first place?" Wolf said. Jim stood up tall. "We're on an important mission." Wolf laughed. "Right! Who isn't? Everyone thinks their mission is important. Why don't you tell us what it is? Is it a secret mission? Hahaha!" Jim looked at Matoaka. "Is it secret? I don't remember anybody saying it was a secret." "It's a secret from Ultratech," Matoaka said, "but I'm guessing these characters have as little to do with Ultratech as we do." Wolf threw his hands up. "Hey! If you're fighting Ultratech then we're on YOUR side." Quickly Jim explained about Ultratech's plot to have an imposter Santa murder a thousand randomly-selected people. Wolf shook his head. "That's hideous! How low can Ultratech go?" "Let's help them!" Monkey said. "It will be more exciting than hanging out in old deserted buildings." Wolf nodded. "Agreed! Jim, we are your friends in this." "Excellent," Jim said. "Maybe you can tell us... Which way is the North Pole?" Twiga "North pole..." Liger murmured stroking he whiskered face "They really don't call it the North Pole anymore that was what they called it when this planet was called Earth now it is called Paydran Central.""Paydran Central?" Matoaka repeated "Ick!" "I think there is a way we can help you find your way." Monkey said "If you will come with us to the top floor." Meanwhile on Ava, Revel was busy with his new job as Scribe, he was extremly busy jotting down notes and running messages for the leaders of Ava. At sundown Revel was relaxing in his chamber when there was a knock on the door. "May I come in?" A small voice asked It was Princess Gear! As quick as a flash Revel opened the door for her. He gulped "H-hi Gear." He stammered "What do you need from me?" "I just need someone to talk to..." Gear said seating heself down on a chair "I know the Bettas are going to attack again soon and we're not going to be prepared for it." Back on Paydran, the Pack led the manimals to the roof, there was a strange device on top, it looked like a cross between a telephone pole, a satilite dish, and a drum set "Is that..." Minsk stammered "What I think it is?" "Yes." Monkey said "The Animusic Pole" Steve Ellen Wolf grinned. "Monkey is an expert on the Animusic Pole. Play it, Monk!" Monkey slipped into the leather chair strapped to the pole and beat out a rhythm. Matoaka stood stiffly for a moment. "This reminds me of tribal dances buried deeply in my subconscious memeory." Matoaka closed her eyes and began to stomp out a tribal dance. Monkey's drumming affected the others as well. Jim began to run around and chitter. Bill snorted. Minsk did a sexy little wiggle dance. But the important thing was that the satellite dish on the pole revolved around and around until suddenly it stopped. Monkey stopped drumming. "That's it!" Monkey said. "The dish points to an incoming Ultratech missle. Run for cover!" Everybody scattered. The missile came screaming in but missed the roof completely and exploded in the street, completely destroying an old Buick Roadmaster convertible. Monkey got back in his chair. "Crisis over! Another Ultratech missile diverted." He started drumming again. "How do you do that?" Bill asked Wolf. "How do you make the missiles miss?" "Partly it's the low-skilled workers Ultratech uses to build the missiles. I hear they even have hamsters on the assembly line. And partly it's the psychic aura we have built up over this roof with Monkey's drumming." Bill shook his head. "There are many things in this world I don't understand." "Amen, brother," Wolf said. "Like why does it never rain unless the sky is cloudy." "Well I DO understand THAT," Bill said. "Really?" Soon Wolf and Bill were in a deep discussion about the weather. Monkey was drumming slowly while Jim and Jordan did a slow dance on the roof. Jordan's head was on Jim's shoulder. "I love you," he whispered. "I wish we could stay here forever," Jordan said. Twiga As much as they would like to stay Matoaka knew that the pressing needs of their journey was going to keep them heading to Paydran Central"So where do we find the Imposter Santas hide out?" She asked "Follow that Missle's particle trail." Liger said "The missle was a formula two rocket, you can follow the trail of smoke right to Paydran Centeral." Meanwhile Revel and Gear were still together, discussing what should be done about the ever looming threat of the Bettas After a while Gear sighed deeply "I hate this stupid law that forbids royalty and servants to marry, you may be a servant but you are far smarter than anybody in the royal counsel." Revel sighed as well "You know it's more than just status."Revel said "My father raped my mother therefore I have... bad blood." "That's a stupid superstition!." Gear said "You shoulden't listen to them." Revel wiped a tear away from his eyes, "Gear." He said slowly "I don't want to hurt you..." They began to edge into a kiss as Revel tried to finish his sentence... Suddenly a clawed hand grabbed Revel by his pointy ear "Aha!" Said a Governess everyone called Nana "Kiss the Princess will you?" "Nana! Please let go!" Revel cried "I didn't mean any harm." "When you were little I tuaght you to respect your supieriors! It looks like you need a refresher course young man!" With that she dragged Revel outside the room, put her across her knee and began spanking him! "Ow! Ow!" Revel shed tears of humiliation as everyone gawked at him "Please Stop!" He cried "I'm not a baby!" (Feels like a while sine I had a spanking scene) Steve Ellen ( )Wolf led the way through the crunchy snow. "I don't think it's much farther. I can see a blinking light." Matoaka's breath hung in the air. "It's beautiful up here with all the snow." "Beautiful but cold," Jim said. "I don't like being cold." He wrapped his scarf another turn around his neck and adjusted his earflap hat with his mittens. "Stop," Bill said. "I don't think we should just charge right in. Let's be sneaky about this." "If you like," Wolf said, "but there are so many of us I think we can easily overpower imposter Santa. He just has a few elves with him." "Real elves?" Jordan said. "No. Imposter elves," Matoaka said. "How do you know he doesn't have guards and guns?" "I'm sure of it. That would give it away that he wasn't a real Santa if they had guards and guns with them." "But they must have at least one gun if they are going to murder 1000 people?" "They aren't going to shoot anybody. They're going to use defective gifts. You know, toys with too much lead, poison candy, electric trains that electrocute the kid, dart guns with needle sharp darts. Basically, they are throwing all safety precaustions to the winds. Imposter Santa could easily kill MORE than a thousand kids." "How do you know all this?" Jim asked. Matoaka looked at him sideways. "It was in the briefing we got, Jim. Maybe if you and Jordan had spent less time cuddling in the back of the room." Jordan blushed. Twiga As they entered the the Imposter Santa's house they saw him asleep on his cot.This should be pretty easy, Jim said, He took a knife and prepared to stab. Suddenly, an alarm sounded! And the Santa woke up to reveal he was... a robot! "OMG!" Jordan exclamed "We've got to get out of here!" But Wolf was not afraid he took a chainsaw and hacked off the false Santa's arms! Monkey chattered and lept on the robot's shoulders and removed it's head! After it's head was removed the fake Santa exploded! High Elder was in his room on his computer when his son junior appeared "Father! Clamety and Woe! Our SantaBot 9,000 has just self-destructed!" "For the love of Plutonium!" High Elder cursed Meanwhile Quirrel's planning commetie was trying to think of a way to sollve the food crisis. "Our scientists have made a miraculous discovery while exploring Asteriod B12." Said Prof. Honeycutt He held up a vial full of a gelationous, colorless substance "We call it Ereu." Honeycutt said "It this form it is completly tasteless, but it can be flavored like any in exsitance, from ice cream to chicken, it can be thickened into a solid and shaped into a all kinds of food shapes." "How dose it compare to real food?" Asked Quirrel "People can't tell the difference!!" Honeycutt exclamed "It isn't like Algae Meal where once people get a taste of the real thing they never go back, No one can honestly tell the difference between real butter and Ereu butter!" "What is it made of?" Asked Nurse Mammaltoe "We're still trying to figure that out." Honeycutt replied "All we can conclude is that is not made out of any known element." Meanwhile after their mission The Manimals reterned to Planet Black Beauty, they had brought the Pack with them including the remaining six who haden't come with them to the North Pole "It's so nice to be here!" Said the dark haired Scorpion "Never in our lives did we dream this would happen to us!" "You earned it." Jim said warmly Steve Ellen Stag welcomed the group home. "Excellent job! You performed your mission well!" Bill stopped reading his story. Jeffrey and Frito were asleep. But they woke up as soon as he stopped. "More story!" Jeffrey said. "But you fell asleep." "No I didn't!" Jeffrey said, rubbing his eyes. Okay, then what's happening in the story? "They went to Planet Black Beauty and now Stag is going to send them on a new mission." "Hmmm," Bill said. "You must soak up the story in your sleep. Okay... Chapter Four, Mission to Mars." "Oooooo," Frito said. "Mars!" Twiga On their way to Mars Jim started to feel queasy"I think I ate something that disagreed with me." Jim moaned clutching his belly "That's odd." Bob said "All that you've eaten since we came the Black Beauty is fruit, and all you drank was water." "Oh GODS!" Jim wailed "I gotta vomit!" He rushed into the lavatory and the sounds that came from him were not pleasant in the least! "I'll handle this," Bill said entering the bathroom "Jim." Bill said trying to sound stern "Have you been drinking my beer again? You know you don't have the stomach for it even though you're half Irish." "Bill, please, rub my back." Jim pleaded Matoaka thought this sounded serious she contacted the White Stag on the Intercom "Is something the matter?" White Stag asked "Yes, one of our crew is violenly ill." Matoaka said "Perhaps you should come back here." The Deer said gently "One of you might have picked up an alien sickness while traveling across planets." Meanwhile on Moonport Ichabod was getting a call from Ultratech "There is a young woman from Former France." Said Police Cheif Roland Blockbuster "Who has been a thorn in our side for years. She keeps organyzing protests, marches and rallying people to free the underpeople!" "Can't you just turn her into an Underwoman?" A very congested Ichabod asked blowing his nose "I'm pretty sure you've done that before." "She's not like other cases." Blockbuster said "She isn't middle class or an independent. She's the daughter and hieress of Dragon Oil Company, Her Pa is the sole producer of feul and energy for our planet, if we kidnapped his little pride and joy, Papa would notice she was gone and shut off the power. We need to bump her off but make it look like an accident." "So you want me to kiss her?" Ichabod asked "Fine, but can it wait? I got a real bad flu and I don't feel very charming right now." With that he hung up. Ichabod felt terrible! He was sick of killing people but he coulden't defy Ultratech. "Ichabod." His father Jonathan Crane said coming through the door "This came in the mail for you." "What is it?" Ichy asked "It's a fruit basket." His father answered "From Black Beauty Ichabod had a pretty good idea who sent it. He checked the tag and it read 'To Ichabod, From your dearest Kitten' In spite of his sickness and sadness Ichabod smiled "It sure does look lovely. Too bad I can't smell anything." He began to open it, just to sample the fruits within, he plucked a green grape and popped it in his mouth. Once the grape juice squirted down his throat Ichabod felt his sinusses clear up "Ye Gods." Ichy was astounded "This is the sweetest fruit I ever tasted! What fertalizer do they use on Black Beauty?" Steve Ellen By the time he finished off the fruit basket, Ichabod felt great. He felt better than he had in years. Obviously Black Beauty had secrets of fruit raising that were totally unkown to the so-called "geniuses" of Ultratech. It's sad, Ichabod thought, that an organiztion as big and powerful as Ultratech can be so incompetent about the basics of food and fuel. Meanwhile, the High Elder paced back and forth in his Chamber of Solitude. "My empire is unstable!" he moaned. "I sense it all around me. Mistakes are made. It's obvious the people hate me. Only blunt military and police power holds everything together." Quirrel interrupted the Elder's pacing. "High Elder? It's time for your 3 o'clock glass of orange juice." Twiga The 'glass of orange juice' was nothing more than code name for a pill for vitamen C.High Elder didn't actually eat food he just took super supplements, he was the only person on Paydran who lived entirely on them. High Elder was fanaticly obbesesed with becoming like the so-called beyonders, He desperatly wanted to shed his body and become a living energy field so he disavowed all attachments to pyhsacal pleasure. The lords and ladies of Ultratech thought High Elder was nuts and refused to share his plan to live on pills or live entirly without pleasure. High Elder hated them for it he felt their pleasure was holding him back. He felt because the rest of humanity was enjoying their lives they were preventing him from escaping his body. Two words can only discribe this mode of thought, Screwed-Up. Meanwhile Jim was fast alsleep in his chamber on Black Beauty. The Healer Woman of Black Beauty gave him some tea to set his stoch at ease "He's had this virus for a while." The Healer said "But when it started I can't be sure. At first it starts out with little things like gas, bodyache or chills." "Then vomiting?" Matoaka asked "Yes." Replied the Healer "I don't think he got this illness while on Ava, but he may have gotten while on Moonport or when you reterned to Paydran." I'm just glad we are now free citizens." Matoaka said "Had this happened to him as a slave he would be dead by now." Steve Ellen "That's true," the Healer said. "It's terrible the lives the slaves lead. Are you the same Matoaka that gained some fame on Ave fighting the Bettas?" "I was there. I don't know how 'famous' I am." "Oh, trust me. Your name is known," said the Healer. "My name is Rhonda. My brother went to Ave to fight against the Bettas. That's how I heard about you." Jordan came in. "How's Jim doing?" "Oh, he'll survive," Rhonda said. "What's the name of that big fellow that's part of your group?" "You mean Bill?" "Is he married?" "No," Jordan said. "Do you want to meet him?" Rhonda smiled. "I do. I like big strong men." "He's more of a big strong boy," Jordan said. "Man, boy, what's the difference? He's male, isn't he?" Jordan and Matoaka laughed with Rhonda. Twiga Rhonda smiled even though no one took her seriously.Jim slept a fitful sleep he kept drifting in and out of nausia, clutching his stomach he drifted in and out of sleep. Jim woke up one hour in the night to feel someone laying right next to him It was Jordan. "Good Ol' Jordan" Jim murmured to himself "I wonder what she's dreaming about?" Jordan was dreaming all the way back to her earliest years. She remembered the parents she hated so much. They were among the richest of the aristocrats but they cared little for their daughter's well being. Jordan was born because who parents were found guilty of tax cheating and were required to have a child as punishment and have her turned into an underperson. They had the child but did not turn her to the autorities instead the handed her over the assastion to be raised. Jordan stirred uneasily in her sleep from the nightmares. Meanwhile, Ultratech was upset at the loss of so many of their underpeople so the sent some wranglers to find out what became of them Steve Ellen One of the best of the Ultratech wranglers was John Fleck. John Fleck had wrangled over a thousand underpeople, which tells you something about the extent of the problem. And John Fleck was just one of the many wranglers Ultratech used. But John Fleck was one of the best. John had a little yellow sled car that he zipped around on. It was small enough to navigate the corridors of Deep Down and fast enough to catch even the fastest running underpeople. Some underpeople could run very fast. Cheetah-Boy Charlie was once clocked at 70 mph on a straightaway. John was driving his yellow car down a serice tunnel when the little finder device on the dashboard blinked red and indicated the location of a runaway underperson on its small monitor. John parked his vehicle, cocked his tranquilizer dart crossbow, and moved stealthily toward his quarry. Twiga John Fleck had an apprentice, a young woman named Sammantha Star.Sammantha was a girl with brown hair, brown eyes, freckles and general plain appearance. But... She had a way of holding herself, a very special posture that made her seem almost queenlike. John Fleck knew he had a pretty hard task ahead of him finding Black Beauty which no one from Ultratech had been able to do. But he was confident luck was on his side. That morning Jim woke up feeling much better, he arose from his tent, plucked some berries from a bush, drank some water and his stomach didn't hurt at all. Jordan arose from the tent, Her red-gold fur snug as a nightgown about her. "You're so beautiful." Jim sighed Jordan blushed Suddenly the morning was intterupted by some loud music! "Lookout world! I'm an independent girl!" That was Bill's voice he was bathining in the stream, singing like he was in the shower... Jordan and Jim giggled at seeing the Bull-boy naked but said no more and quietly walked away. Meanwhile on Ava, Zander was resting after a hard day of work, After a lot or planning on how to rebuild Ava he needed a break. He opened up his little mini-fridge, and got out some jeweled oysters (an Avian species of bivalve that has a jewled shell) Zander pryed open the oysters loose with his tougue to suck out the sweet raw oyster flesh 'I wonder how Matoaka is doing?' He thought to himself Steve Ellen John and Sammantha had a crocodile girl cornered in Corridor 17E. "Easy, Sammantha," John said. "The crocs can be vicious when cornered. Watch out for those teeth." Sammantha's job was to hold the rope while John looped the other end around the croc girl's neck - after she was suitably tranquilized,of course. But there must have been something wrong with the dart John used. The croc girl seemed to be unconscious, but when John approached she suddenly thrashed her tail and tried to bite him. Sammantha screamed as John jumped back. "Hey!" he said. "What's with the screaming? You have to stay calm." It surprised John that Sam did that, because her normal attitude was so stately and solemn. He forgot she was a young girl just learning how to wrangle. Sam blushed. "I'm sorry John." John smiled. "Just try to stay calm." John went after the croc girl again and this time she remained tranquilized as he roped her. Soon the two wranglers had the girl on the sled and they headed back to headquarters. Meanwhile, Matoaka was talking with Rhonda. "So you are really attracted to Bill?" Matoaka asked. "Attracted? I am stuck on that big ox boy like gravy on rice." "What's rice?" Matoaka said. "Um... a food item?" "Oh. But Bill is perhaps not an appropriate boyfriend for you, don't you think?" "Huh?!" Rhonda said. "Why? You mean because of the ox thing? Nooo. That's why I like him so much!" Rhonda grinned at Matoaka and Matoaka thought, Uh oh, Bill, I should warn you about this one! Twiga Samantha and John had wrangled up the croc and delivered it to the autorities.They headed out into space, Samantha was listning to her walkman. "Hey," John said "Penny for your thoughts?" "I'm just thinking about our next mission." Sammantha said "To find Planet Black Beauty.... And also I was thinking what will happen to me when I die?" "Say what?" John muttered "When I die," Sam responded "Like will I continue to think after death? Or will I shut off like a TV?" John laughed a hearty Austrailan laugh "Barmy Kid." He guffawed "That's old timey thought you know? Ultratech has proved there is no such thing as an afterlife, when you're dead... thats it..." "Yeah I guess." Samantha sighed. Meanwhile on Planet Black Beauty, Marzipan was at the spa getting her nails trimmed, when Rook brought her a peice of paper "This was just smuggled in by one of our new inhabitants." The Fox-boy said "Read what it says." The paper read "GRAND OPENING" 'Eat at Carnivale's The brand new restraunt serving Ereu, a tasty new foodstuff that taste even better than actuall food' 'Try our...Eueu Beef,Ereu Pork,Ereu Chicken and all that, and all that' "I sure as heck don't know what Ereu is... Marzipan cocked her head "But can you only make meat stuffs out of it?" Sure enough the hero kids discovered the pamphlet as well "Your mission if you chosse to accept it." Said the stag "Is to find out what Ereu is, if it is safe, and weather or not People should eat it." "You can count on us." Matoaka said "Come on team!" So they headed off to the space bus to discover WHAT IS THE SECRET OF EREU? Steve Ellen Rhonda, the human girl, was fixing herself up nice so she could seduce Bill, the ox boy. She had the usual internal mental conflicts that humans have when they mess around with manimals. Like: Will I be doing it with an animal or a human? And: Bestiality is not my first choice for a sexual lifestyle. But Rhonda was pretty liberal about most things and used to getting what she wanted, so to her the fact that she had a crush on Bill was justification enough to pursue him. Who cares what anybody else thinks? Rhonda put on her red silk slinky dress - it was a guaranteed man catcher. She sprayed herself with her favorite perfume - No Escape. She applied make-up to make her eyes look big and her lips look soft. Then she went looking for Bill. Meanwhile, John Fleck and Sammantha sat parked at the Moonport Bar and Grill, munching on algae burgers. "How are we going to find Planet Black Beauty?" Sammantha said. "I don't know. Headquarters left it up to us. They apparently have a lot of respect for my ability to find stuff. I don't know why. Sure, I've found some escaped Underpeople, but is that the same as finding a stealth planet? I don't think so." Sammantha finished her burger. "Have you heard of that new Ereu food?" "No." "They say it tastes so good you want second helpings." John managed to stuff the last of his algae burger down his throat. "That would be a change." Twiga The new Ereu restaruant on Moonport was called Hoofbeats.The Kids drove up to the drive through "What do you want?" Growled an unfriendly voice Matoaka was taken aback "Er... What do you would you suggest we get?" "Well we got Ereu Frozen Delights and Ereu beer is always popular with the kids and my personal favorite ereu sugar balls." "Ok we'll... have some?" Steve Ellen The speaker growled again. "What? Some of everything? What you want is the Sampler Platter, then. Enough for two?" "No," Matoaka said. "At least enough for four. We'll order more if we like it." They went to the pick-up window and received four steaming boxes of Ereu Sampler Platter, A Delicious Assortment of Ereu Delights." "This isn't bad," Jim said. "Munching on something crispy." Jordan picked up a plastic spoon and dipped into a cup of something creamy. "Mmmmm! This reminds me of my gramndma's secret pudding." Twiga Bob picked up a sugar ball, "This is pretty good." He saidMatoaka than stopped eating "OK, It may taste good but we still don't know what Ereu is. I think we should put some of this under the microscope." Meanwhile John and Samantha were driving around minding there own business when they spotted the Manimal's van "Isn't that the van that was stolen by the famous Sextet of Underpeople?" Samantha asked "The ones who escaped like half a year ago?" "By George I think you're right!" John exclaimed Matoaka seemed to sense they were about to be followed becuase quickly she headed to the steering wheel and hauled tail!" "They's heading away!" Samantha cried "Don't you worry." John said "We'll head them off at the pass." Steve Ellen Bob gripped the dashboard tensely, all thoughts of Ereu Sugar Balls vanished from his mind. "Are they trying to cut us off?" Matoaka yanked the Space Van around in a screaming curve that threw everybody to one side of the vehicle. "For God's sake fasten your seatbelts!" "Zheesh!" Jordan said, There was creamy Ereu Pudding all over her face. Matoaka punched the accelerator and the space van's engines whined. Everyone was pressed into their seats and all the loose pieces of Ereu flew to the back wall of the van. "Wow!" Bob said. "Those musicians must have modified the drive units in this van. It sure ain't stock with acceleration like that. Hey, do you think that's Limozeen following us?" "No!" Matoaka said. "It's got a government license plate on it. Some kind of undercover cops for Ultratech." "Oh shit!" Bob said. Twiga They had to retern to Black Beauty. They had gotten Ereu food to study so they were good until they're next mission.Matoaka took a look at the sugar balls, she tore a tiny piece of and looked at it under a microscope. "How very interesting..." Matoaka said "What is it?" Minsk asked "This food is made up of LIVING cells and is genuinely alive, thing is these cells aren't like animal cells, plant cells or any cell of any living thing." "Let me take a look." Minsk chirped She took a look at the Microscope "You're definetly right." She said "But I think I've seen these kind of cells before." "Where?" "Can't recall excactly..." Minsk said "I saw it in a book... about... fantasy creatures." Meanwhile on Paydran High Elder got a call. "High Elder! Come in High Elder! It is us! The Beyonders!" High Elder turned on the holocom at once! The image of a shaft of light filled the room! "We the Beyonders are willing to grant to your wish to have you shed your 'meat' body and become disembodied energy fields." "How? Tell me how?" "You must help us fight our enimies..." Steve Ellen "I can do that!" the High Elder said. "Who are your enemies?" The shaft of light vibrated red and blue. "We have many enemies. Some are too strong for you, like the Pirate Black Holes of Galaxy Prime, or the Devolutionized Insanity Monsters from the 33rd Century. However, we have an enemy right here on Paydran that has eluded us despite our advanced knowledge." "That surprises me." "It surprised us too, but we figure maybe we should set a dummy to catch a dummy, as the old expression goes. Since your intelligence level is down much closer to his than ours is, we think you can trap him." "But who is he?" the high Elder said. The shaft vibrated gold and lavendar. "We call him the Man With No Face. We know he was once a chemist, a musician, a golf pro, and a chef. He is the secret force behind something that is happening on Paydran right now, something that you in your Ivory Tower may be completely unaware of." "Nonsense! I know everything that happens on Paydran." "Do you know about the new food product called Ereu?" The High Elder thought for a moment. "Okay. Maybe that's new to me." "Find the force behind it and there you will find the Man With No Face. Capture him and I will reward you." The shaft of light faded away. "Mister Quirrel!" screamed the High Elder. "Come here immediately! I have an assignment for you!" "I know," Quirrel said. The High Elder jumped. "Don't sneak into my room like that." Quirrel nodded. "I heard everything that was said. Ereu. The Man With No Face. I'll get right on it." Twiga Minsk looked through some books that had been smuggled into Black Beauty"Here it is!" She exclamed "Here is what?" Asked Matoaka "I know what Ereu is," The Mink said smugly "It's Fairy Food!" "Fairies?!" Bill snorted "Don't make me laugh! There is no such thing as fairies!" "Sneer at me all you want but fairies DO exist!" Minsk said "Fairies aren't weird bugs or tiny humans with wings, in fact not all of them are tiny some are taller than most humans." "I remember reading about fairies." Jim said "Doesn't it say that if you eat fairy food you're trapped in the Fairy World like...forever?" "That's only if you're IN Fairy Land." Minsk said "We were in our universe the whole time so it can't trap us." "Very interesting." Matoaka said She held up some Ereu ice cream "I made a discovery of my own. Basicly Ereu has a narcotic effect of the brain it makes too much Dopamine in our brains!" "What's dopamine?" Jim asked "A horomone that sends pleasureable sensations through our bodies whenever we do somethging pleasant like eating breakfast or having sex. The thing is, Ereu makes too much dopamine causing our brains to go into overload and begin to shut down, but than we crave Ereu because we're not making enough dopamine ourselves." She held the ice cream aloft "So this isn't really food it's strawberry flavored cocaine!" Steve Ellen Jim gasped. "I don't want to become a drug addict!" He popped another Ereu Sugar Ball into his mouth. His cheeks were glistening with sugar crumbs. Jordan took the bag of Sugar Balls away from him. "Then stop eating this stuff." Jim stared at the bag. "Give that back to me or I will kill you." Matoaka frowned. "Better give it back to him. I think he may have alreay become addicted." "Fine," Jordan said, "but what's he going to do when our supply runs out?" Jim looked up. "Runs out? Oh my God! That's true. We need to make sure we can get plenty of Ereu all the time!" Jim wasn't the only one who felt that way. And while there were plenty of people on Black Beauty (and elsewhere) who were NOT addicted to Ereu, there were also many who now WERE addicted to Ereu. The social tensions were becoming intense. One group wanted Ereu banned and the other group wanted the government to guarantee that supplies of Ereu would never be interrupted. Throughout the inhabited planets, the so-called Confederation of Man, there were signs of revolution and possible collapse and anarchy. Even the High Elder became aware of these dangers and he wondered about the Beyonders and their quest for the Man With No Face. Were the Beyonders trying to save humanity? And why was the Man With No Face seemingly trying to destroy it? "Quirrel!" the High Elder shouted. "What results do you have on the search for the Man With No Face?" "Not much, sir. Apparently he also has no footprints. We can't find a trace of him." The High Elder whirled his cape around. "But surely you can find out where the damn Ereu comes from? How does it get here?" Quirrel look worried. "Uh.... it seems to fall from the sky as a twinkly dust." The High Elder looked incredulous. "A twinkly dust! Do you hear yourself?!" "SIre, the dust is collected by peasants. Sometimes they lay sheets on the ground. Sometimes they simply sweep it up with a broom. Collectors come by and buy the bags from the peasants. Then the bags go to thousands of minifactories, often just the kitchen in someone's home, where they are processed into Ereu foodstuffs." "But how do these people know to do all that?" Quirrel shrugged. "Nobody knows. We interrogated some of them using every technique from truth drug to hypnosis to torture, but they all claimed they either dreamed it or it was just a mysterious compulsion." "And the Man With No Face?" "No one admits to ever seeing or knowing such a person." Twiga Seeing as Jim was already showing some signs of addiction Matoaka bludgened him over the head with a big stick so she could properly heal him."I don't want anyone eating anymore Ereu!" She told everyone firmly "No Problomo." Bill said "I'll just stick with good old fashioned non-ereu beer!" "That's not what I ment." Matoaka sighed "But I guess it will have to do..." She stuck Jim in one of those tubes where they sort of...X ray your brain "Just as I thought." She said "Jim's losing the ability to think rationaly..." Matoaka tried to think of what would keep Jim's addiction down... She decided she would give Vassopreson injections to keep him mellowed out, she knew it was risky but Jim was already losing himself to the drugs so... she took a bottle of vassopreson and injected into Jim's arm. "I feel funny..." Jim murmured "What you're feeling is your horomone levals adjust." Matoaka said "For a couple of hours you'll feel really horny, than really sleepy then you'll be catatonic than..." "Than what?" Jim asked not liking where this was going. "Than you'll zoomorph into an ordanary squirrel, oh you'll still be able to speak and reason and such but you won't have opposable thumbs or uprisght posture." "Will my drug addiction be gone after that?" Jim asked "Hopefully, so long as you never touch Ereu again for the rest of your life." Steve Ellen "Is it okay if Jordan and I spend some quality time together while I go through that horny phase you mentioned?" "I guess so," Matoaka said. "I don't suppose your time with her later will be very high quality after you lose your thumbs." "Ouch! I'm hoping there will be a way to get them back." "We'll see," Matoaka said. Meanwhile, Quirrel had disguised himself as a peasant and was staying in a cottage. He wanted to see for himself when the fairy dust fell. So he sat in a chair in the yard and watched the sky. Shortly after midnight the twinkly dust began raining down. Quirrel thought he saw the flicker of wings way up in the sky. So it really was fairies, he thought. Or at least some type of winged being and why not call them fairies. Quirrel picked up the shotgun he had brought with him and aimed it up into the sky. When he saw a flicker he let go with both barrels. There was a scream and something tumbled from the sky. Quirrel ran over to look. It was a male fairy, about 18" tall, and apparently not seriously hurt. "Here now!" it said. "Why did you go and do that? That wasn't right, was it?" "You're a real fairy!" Quirrel said. "Bigger than I expected." "We come in all sizes. I'm a jumbo. But that don't make it right what you did. DId you know I could put a curse on you? Give you pimples and boils and rashes and hives?" Quirrel shrank back. "Are you going to do that?" "No, I'm not, because I know who you are. You're Mr Quirrel, aren't you, what does the High Elder's bidding?" "How did you know that?" "Fairies know a lot. And you want to know about the Man With No Face, don't you?" "Yes!" Quirrel said. "What can you tell me?" "There's one thing I can tell you..." The fairy lifted up with his wings flapping until he was 10 feet in the air. "...He ain't got no face!" Then the fairy flew away, laughing as he went. Quirrel frowned. "Stupid fairy!" Twiga After Jim woke up he began with several minutes of ummm.... how should I put this... Yiffing... Jordan...Than he started feeling sleepy, he fell into a deep sleep with Jordan right beside him. "I want to let you know not to be afraid when he, er, um transforms into an ordanary squirrel." Matoaka said peeking into the tent, just so you know." Twiga That was the end of Bill's first story, it left many ends loose but Bill at the time being ran out of ideas..."Don't worry kids." Bill said "I'll think up some new ideas real soon!" The End! © Copyright 2008 Twiga, Steve Ellen, (known as GROUP). All rights reserved. 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