A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Winter nearly groaned as he finally got to the top deck. Luckily, he had changed back to normal shortly after he stuffed the MUPPETZ into a closet. But now he knew he had to find Summer and tell her a few more things. It was obvious that the battle was coming to an end, and he'd have to wait a while before he could be with her again after this.

He searched around for her, but only saw fighting ANTI agents and MUPPETZ at every corner. One ANTI agent was kicking flaming muffins, and a couple MUPPETZ were lying on the deck floor trapped in ice. And now, was it just him, or was the Ellecopter flying above? Oh, great, it was definitely Ellemo's helicopter! Ellemo was his least favorite MUPPETZ (even more than Echo).

Someone yelled his sister's name, and he twisted around to see another ANTI agent running towards Summer (thank goodness, he thought with excitement) and another ANTI. He started nearing them, but then paused to scan the agent, who the other one had called "Thorn." Wait a jiffy, he thought with suspicion, is that Echo in disguise? He only could tell it was her because of the scar on her arm, which never seemed to vanish well when she shape-shifted (although he had only seen her do so once). He wondered if he should say something, but instead kept his mouth shut and neared the three.

Summer was overjoyed to be in her friends' grasps again, especially after all she'd been through. She explained, "Well, Mal'ady, I've been in MUPPETZ territory, but thank goodness I had help. In fact, here he comes now!" That made her giddy, now that she felt sure that she wasn't alone as an orphan anymore, and had family! "Mal and Thorn, this is my brother, Winter!"

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Echo reached into her pocket to pull out her hypnotic pocketwatch - a handy weapon it was too - but there was no need. The Agent called Mal'ady and her epic Kung-fu-ness took care of the MUPPETZ quicker than she could say "cheese puffs".

She flinched when she was tackle-hugged by Mal'ady. "It's good to see you," she said, then quickly cleared her throat. Her voice was still the same! She lowered it a bit, trying to sound like the ANTI Agent she was impersonating. "Erm well, the inhospitable man running this ship is not particularly fond of cheese puffs - or ANTI Agents for that matter. But I managed to slip away. I don't know what happened to the...Doctor. But I expect he's more than capable of taking care of himself. Come on, let's get out of here."

On deck, it appeared that the battle was pretty much over. Dazed and confused MUPPETZ lay strewn about, shaking their furry heads as if trying to figure out what just happened. Echo wondered what had become of her father and the Lieutenant.

Then she noticed someone staring at her.

Echo stiffened. Winter! What's he doing here? She and Winter had never been what you'd call friend. A long-time rivalry separated them - they were constantly trying to outdo each other. But why was he staring at her like that? Surely he couldn't see through her disguise? Instinctively, she reached for the sleeve of her shirt, pulling it down to try to hide her scar.

She avoided her gaze as he approached, trying to seem interested in the remnants of the battle. But when Summer introduced him, she gave him a polite nod. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Winter."

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Agent Thorn floated in open sea for many long, terrible, thirsty days. She didn't even have a piece of driftwood to cling to in this desolate time, because technically, she was the driftwood. Her only company was a few sharks, who didn't stay long after getting acquainted with the hefty kick of her boot, and a bad-tempered albatross that liked to land on her head and call her names in albatrossish at least ten times a day.

Agent Thorn needed water. It was ironic, she often thought as she floated under the sun, that the greatest desert in the world was actually the sea.

"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink."

The dryad could survive without food—however adamantly she loved chocolate and the glorious cheese puff, she got all of the nutrients she needed through photosynthesis—but fresh, pure water she could not do without.

I don't want to die like this. This is such a lame way to die. Floating around in the ocean like a lost bath toy.

Who wants to die like a rubber duck? Going down squeaking? Who DOES that?

Idiotic.

After three days floating under the hot sun in a hot sea, the dryad passed out.

When she awoke, it was night and the moon was high, and she was lying on a cool beach with the waves lapping at her ankles.

She struggled dizzily to her feet, and took in her surroundings. She was on some kind of island—there was a wide, barren beach, and a dense, dark forest running along it, with mountains rising grimly in the distance. But that was about all the dryad could see in the moonlight, and her vision was blurry and fading from dehydration.

I've got to find water, was the dryad's one thought as she staggered towards the forest, desperate to find an inland stream.

The forest was overgrown and menacing, and ridiculously hard to get through without crawling on your hands and knees, but Agent Thorn had no choice but to try. She kept walking into trees, and thinking she saw her family in them. (And seeing as her family scared her more than M.U.P.P.E.T.Z., this wasn't exactly reassuring.) There were times when she thought she heard growls, but she told herself it was only the hush of leaves as she shoved branches and kicked ferns aside. Several times a limb caught her in the face, and half the time she wasn't sure that it was the trees taking vengeance on her, but some clawed animal instead.

And there were eyes—white, glowing pairs of orbs floating in the night—that would catch her gaze, but whenever she turned to give them a good look, they would melt away like phantoms.

I'm going mad, she told herself. The dehydration is making me mad.

But Agent Thorn was a trained A.N.T.I. agent, and deep down, she knew that dehydration wasn't all that was up. In fact, if her fears were correct, dehydration was the least of her dangers now. And that had brought her kicking and screaming to death's door, for heaven's sake.

This is the test you've been waiting for, Thorn.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, she stumbled upon a small, moonlit pool. She knelt over it, not caring if there were snakes or alligators, and filled her cupped hands again and again until her thirst was appeased.

It wasn't until she was wiping her mouth with her dirty sleeve and standing up that she saw someone—or something—standing on the other side of the pool, watching her.

ANTI (or American Nitwits who Think Intelligently)

Cheyenne watched as the girl wandered to the pool and bent down for a drink. When she looked up at him, he smiled slightly to himself. I remember you..... an ANTI agent if memory serves. Standing where he was, the moon was behind the rogue making him appear as simply a silhouette to the girl. Cheyenne pulled out his multi-purpose music watch and opened it, letting the melancholy tune float across the pond. ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHH5D7XMpt8&feature=related

Once the tune ended, the man made his way around the pond over to the girl. Once Cheyenne was on the same side as Thorn, he pushed his fedora brim up with his thumb and gave the ANTI agent a friendly smile.

At that moment a sudden rustling in the brushes nearby followed by a loud shout of pain interrupted the quite of the night. A second later the spindly form of a weather worn old man came tumbling out of the bramble. "Ahhe! I said I would bring her here! Yes, yes! Brought On By the Night she is! Watched her from the shore to here, I did!" The old man said excitedly to the other man like a child who had done something good and was waiting to be rewarded. Or was it more like a dog who has done something for it's master?

"Thanks, Corter. Though you haven't done anything about trying to help our new arrival." The tall man said glancing between Corter and Thorn. "Here, eat this. It will give you some strength for the trek to the cave." Cheyenne said in a more friendly manner to the girl as he handed her a Mr. Crunchy energy bar.

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Agent Thorn glanced back and forth between the scraggly old man and the dude in black with apprehension. She didn't like how they had practically ambushed her. At all. Even if the man in black had a ridiculously cool hat.

Trek to the cave? What cave? Thorn thought as the younger of the two held out an energy bar to her.

She was about to say that she didn't need to eat food, thank you very much, and was in no mood to accept Mr. Crunchy bars from sinister-looking strangers, fedoras notwithstanding. . . but staring down at the shiny chocolate coating of the energy bar, she had a second thought.

If these guys were clever, they might deduce she was a dryad from her refusing to eat. . . and dryads had weaknesses, and she wasn't sure she wanted them to be known. Not until she knew what these two were about.

Besides, it was unlikely these men would lace a Mr. Crunchy bar with poison when they could just throttle her. And if they had wasted perfectly good food, she would throttle them.

Right. It was perfectly logical just to accept the food. And eat the food.

"Well, I usually don't like accepting food from people I don't know," Agent Thorn said, "But I like your hat."

She started to take a bite, but stopped.

The hat. . . the song. . . .

There was something familiar about this guy.

"Wait. . . are you an A.N.T.I. agent?"

ANTI (or American Nitwits Think Intelligently)

"Thanks." Cheyenne said as the girl accepted the chocolate bar and complimented his fedora. "I used to be, until I got stuck here." he replied to the question Thorn had asked. To be fair, it was the truth..... kind of.

Actually, Cheyenne had been an ANTI agent before getting a better offer from the Count. Leaving ANTI, the rogue had traveled to the MUPPETZ island only to find himself marooned once he arrived. Blasted M-29 hover planes never work right.....

"Harmonica, we should take her to the cave, yes? Get her out of the night and where it it is warm, as you said." Corter started rambling at the fact that they were not on their way back to his "house" yet. The hermit didn't mind the night, but this part of the island always spooked him for some unknown reason.

"Yes, yes. We're leaving now. Go ahead and get things ready. Yes, I can find my way back perfectly fine." Cheyenne replied to his old companion in a slightly annoyed tone. After a quick glance back at the girl, Corter scurried off into the forest.

"Sorry about all this. Corter can be a bit..... awkward when it comes to new acquaintances." Cheyenne said as he watched the old man run off. "There's a cave about half a mile away that we can stay in. Fresh water, a warm fire and plenty of music for your hearts content. It's no Hilton, but it works." the rogue continued with a charming smile.

"Do you think you can walk by yourself that far?"

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Winter felt it was now or never that the two had one last talk. But he wanted to make fun of Echo first. "Hey, I think I know you..." He gasped. For a moment, he was sure she was about to freak out, but then he rudely teased, "She's that ANTI agent we captured that couldn't stop crying for mommy!" That was all he needed to do, and snidely grinned as he mentally checked off a point for himself, and none for Echo.

Before anyone one could protest to what he had said, he politely asked, "I need to tell something to Summer in private realy quick, and then I'll let you three be on your own?" He signalled Summer, and, even though she looked confused, she followed along. Near the edge of the boat, he dodged a flying MUPPETZ, and then whispered "I am so glad I found you, Summer, and I hope to see you again, but I need to go. Those ANTI know I'm a MUPPETZ, and I'd rather not get in trouble with them, including if I get mad and bite them with my venomous fangs."

"Go?" Summer sofly cried. "But I just met you! After all these years, I wished I had a brother, and now that I discovered I did, I have to lose him again?" A tear slid down her face.

Winter hugged her. "I promise we'll find each other again, Eula, and we can catch up on many things that have occured to us. But I belong here, and you should be there. I love you, sis, and I vow that I won't let anything bad happen to you. But let me warn you of one thing." Summer sadly nodded to this, and he went on. "It's your choice whether you tell your friends and allies you're a HumETZ, but be wise with what you do. MUPPETZ aren't liked much by ANTI, and I don't want you to get hurt because of that."

Then, he let go of their embrace, and replied, "Goodbye, Summer. Be safe, and know that I'll be waiting for you." And with that, he left, vanishing into a swarm of retreating MUPPETZ.

"Bye, Winter," she called quietly, and sadly but cheerfully returned to her friends.

Return of the Fountain Fellowship

David smiled. "What, did she run away or something?"

The look on Ace's face told him more than words could. David sat up in his bed. "What's going on? Do you know where she is?"

Ace shook his head, "After I got done on my shift I went to see her in the Medical Wing, like you asked... She came out with Doctor Nix... you know him, I've commented on him before. Anyway, I got all upset about him, and told her what he did to me... she got mad or upset or something and ran away."

He ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know where she went"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cale dropped down, after what seemed like hours of climbing he had finally made it to the bottom of the ladder. Other then his lightsaber he was in complete darkness. After all, no one had been down this tunnel in years.

VACs was the next one down, he had a flashlight installed someplace on his body which of course would help allot in the exploration of the tunnels. The rest of the group followed shortly after.

Now let me explain their surrondings. Well what they could see with the limited light they had anyways. They were in a small room, about the size of the average bedroom. In front of them there was two passage ways, one to the left and one to the right.

"Well... Which way do we go?" Shrims asked, searching for anything on his person that could be used as a light.

---

Scrappy finished hotwiring the speeder in no time, then he fired his booster rockets, landing right in the passenger side seat. Just waiting for Piper to jump inside.

---

Zak finally pulled to a stop outside of Ditto Town picking up his comlink he told the rest of his Mercenary friends to "Wait up a minute" before hopping out of the speeder and watching behind them as a black speeder sped past "And there goes our stalker" he said to himself.

Cyg braked hard when the com crackled and Zak told them to hold up. He spun the wheel to the side, and ducked it in the shadow of the last building on the edge of town. They watched a black speeder pass them going at a high rate of speed and Shalen keyed the com, "Zak? Was he MESS?"

Liminata huffed from the control console, "Evidently... I would say he was, just from my scanner profiles... but maybe Zak knows more?"

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

"Definitely," Agent Thorn scoffed. To prove it, she strode off into the forest, expertly hopping over tree roots and ducking branches until she was about fifty paces away and faltered.

"Uh," she said, turning. "Which way is the cave?"

Cheyenne pointed over his shoulder.

"Oh."

The pair set off through the forest.

"I remember you," Agent Thorn said. "I was new to the force when you disappeared. Everyone still talks about you. They always said you were one of the greatest agents ever in the A.N.T.I. organization."

She raised an eyebrow, as if this was something that would need to be proven to her.

"Where are we? This is M.U.P.P.E.T.Z. territory, isn't it? In fact," she said slowly, looking around her, "I'd almost say this was M.U.T.A.N.T.Z. Island. But we've always thought it was a myth; we've never been able to find it. We don't even know what the acronym stands for, it's so secret. Yet when I think of those handful of old reports we got from half-mad, half-dead sailors. . ."

She glanced up at a cliff face, where there was a skull with awful, goggly eyes carved into the jagged rock.

". . . This place matches them almost exactly."

ANTI (or American Nitwits Think Intelligently)

"So they still talk about me, eh?" Cheyenne said with glance at Agent Thorn as they walked through the forest. "Well, I guess it's not everyday that an ace agent goes missing...." he continued with a slight chuckle as he pushed a branch out of the way.

"Unfortunately you are correct.... on all accounts." The man replied looking up at the skull mountain. "Thankfully, Corter's place is over there. Away from the MUPPETZ encampment line." Cheyenne said motioning to a smaller cave beneath the skull face, then gestured out towards the islands dense center. "We don't mess with them, they don't mess with us. Not exactly the best working relationship, but for the present it's livable." he finished with a boyish smile before starting up the path to the cave. Giving assistants to Thorn when needed.

A few minutes later the two agents were standing inside a large cave that was well furnished with.... stuff. There were several natural outcroppings on the walls that now worked as bookshelves and storage places for odds and ends. The center of the large room housed a small firepit with makeshift grate over it for cooking. The most impressive and strange piece in the room was a medium sized CD player with speakers nestled into a natural mini cave in the right-hand wall. Surrounding the player were dozens of CD's.... film soundtracks.

Corter excitedly greeted Cheyenne and Thorn as though they were long lost relatives while simultaneously showing off his somewhat humble abode to the new arrival. After showing Thorn around, Corter waddled over to the fire and dipped out two tortoise shell bowls of soup. The old hermit gave the bowls to Cheyenne and Thorn.

"Don't worry, it's actually good." Cheyenne whispered to Thorn with a wink when he noticed the girls less than thrilled expression at the soup.

A.N.T.I (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Lia was swimming. Her arms were sore and that's how she knew she had been doing it for awhile. Or maybe she had suffered some sort of injury that made her extremely sleepy. She didn't know. When she had first woke up on the sinking sub, Lia had hoped that the cold water would bring back her memory.

But it hadn't.

So here she was. Swimming. There was a sliver of land on the horizon. She knew that she needed to reach it quickly, before she was too tired to keep moving. It was when she had reached this very logical conclusion that she noticed something strange.

She had stopped moving.

Lia forced herself to move her arms and legs. And slowly, slowly, she inched her way to land. The beach was rocky and there was no place for Lia to rest. She crawled along the beach, resulting in nothing more than bloody knees.

It was then she heard the voice. It was weirdly twisted and rather frightening. "Want to hear a joke?" it said with a sinister chuckle.

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Agent Thorn stared down at the soup dubiously. It didn't look very tasty, but the loony old man named Corter was looking at her so expectantly, she didn't want to offend him. She screwed her eyes shut, brought the spoon to her lips (which was really just a seashell tied to a stick), and took a sip.

Well, it's not SO bad, she thought, trying not to grimace. If you like seaweed.

"Thank you," she told Corter with a rather bewildered smile.

Staring at the old kook and the man in black, who looked perfectly relaxed around the firepit with the firelight playing off their faces, Agent Thorn got the first inkling since Cheyenne had introduced himself that something wasn't right.

Why were they so calm and cozy in this little cave, in the heart of M.U.T.A.N.T.Z. Island? This place was supposed to be the most dangerous place on earth, crawling with bloodthirsty MUPPETZ experiments, so mutated and out of control that they had been exiled to this forsaken spit of land.

She had seen them before Cheyenne had found her—she knew she had. She may have been half-dead with dehydration and too out of it to feel pain or horror, but the deep claw marks on her arms and face didn't lie. She probably would have been killed by them if she hadn't reached the pool in time, if Cheyenne hadn't come.

They were stuck on the most perilous island known to man, surrounded by mutants programmed to kill, and yet these two were as snug as a bug in a rug. And slurping soup to boot.

Something didn't add up.

"What are these?" Agent Thorn stood up abruptly, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that was crawling through her mind, and pointed at the stacks of CD cases. "Frequencies to drive the mutants away?"

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

Evul Doctor Joe Weirdsworth walked up behind Cyko "Boo! Man, are you a sight for sore eyes" he said, looking around "Where is everybody?" he asked.

Evidence of struggle were all over Joe, his lab coat was torn, his bazooka dented and, yes he had a black eye. Otherwise he was no worse for wear. And looking around, he fit right in with the battered scenery.

Suddenly a surving M.U.P.P.E.T.Z sniper took a shot at the two spies. The bullet glanced off the deck as Joe dived behind cover "GOOD THING THEY CAN'T AIM!"

ANTI (or American Nitwits Think Intelligently)

"Sort of, Corter can better explain wha...." before Cheyenne could complete his sentence, the old hermit had jumped up and hurried over to the collection of discs.

"Ahhee! My soundtrack collection, yes! All mine these are. Collected over many years. Helps to pass the long hours they do!" Corter explained with a large smile as he lovingly looked over the mass of CD's. "The Mutantz don't like these very much, though. Good thing too!" he added with a nod before collecting about 4 or 5 cases from the shelf.

"Sound carries through the Dark Places of the World and scares off the Nameless Fear's." Corter proudly explained gesturing to the cave as he prepared the CD player. "My favorite, is this one! Fits this island well, I think." The hermit said as the slow and haunting opening of The Dark Half began. -------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PUTpdegAX4

While Thorn's attention was preoccupied, Cheyenne quietly slipped out of the cave and headed up the mountain to a rather Gothic looking fortress nestled just out of sight from passers-by on the ground. There was someone he needed to talk to......

A.N.T.I. (American Nitwits Think Intelligently): The Rebellion

The bullet glanced off the deck and into CyKo's monoclerglasses. The bullet stopped dead in the glass, missing his eye by a smidge- a smidge of a smidge. Some of the glassy shattered, but it miraculously missed CyKo's eye completely. CyKo had luckily been wearing the glasses farther down his nose than usual, which also aided in the protection of his eye.

Looking to the MUPPETZ, now partially blinded by his lack of the monoclerglass, took out his 16/20 round sweet tart pistol and shot in what he thought was the general direction of the MUPPETZ.

Putting his hand in his back pocket and grabbing his extra pair of monoclerglasses, he saw that the sweet tart bullet was zooming straight towards Doctor Weirdsworth's face!

CyKo quickly reloaded, shot the Muppetz (who sank to the bottom of the sea...) and ran to the evil but good doctor, screaming for him to watch out...