Agent Boe watched incredulously through the whole ordeal at the hyper squirrels' camp. He didn't trust the little rodents. As a general rule, he didn't trust anything with buck teeth, and as a secondary general rule, he didn't trust anything with a fluffy tail. Those things put together make for a doubly untrustworthy combination; and the only time he'd ever encountered such a combination before was Aunt Edith at the family reunion, though he didn't believe she was really his aunt.

He stood at the gathering at the center of the camp, surveying the slimey LIA display, arms crossed. "I don't know, CyKo, I don't trust these things. They still haven't returned my SPE--Uh, Emotigun."

Just then, a trio of squirrels came running up to him, carrying his Formerly-SPELR-Turned-Emotigun. "HEREITISHEREITISWEBRINGITBACKNOWDOCTORSQUIRRELFACEFIXEDIT!!!!"Boe looked confusedly at the one they called Doctor Squirrelface: a crazy-haired lab coat-clad insane looking little squirrel. Actually, he looked alot like a squirrely version of Evil Doctor Joe Weirdsworth III, with more fur and less height.

"Oh... thank you, Dr. Squirrelface! I don't know what to say," Boe said with a grin. As a general rule, he automatically trusted anyone who voluntarily repaired his weapon, furry tail or otherwise. Boe aimed the SPELR out away from the gathering and fired to test it out. However, it didn't shoot Silly Putty. Instead, there was a grinding noise, then a hissing sound, and a gurgle, followed by some bubbling. Finally, there was a ding, and Dr. Squirrelface eagerly held an empty coffee mug up to the end of the barrel, out of which a stream of hot cappuccino poured forth into the mug.

"WHAT???" Boe yelled indignantly, "This isn't fixed!! You've turned it into a coffee maker!! It's against ANTI regulations to convert a weapon into a heated beverage appliance!!"

"NONONOTJUSTCOFFEECARAMELMACHIATTO!!!YUMYUMVERYGOODVERYGOOD!" Dr. Squirrelface said excitedly, and gulped the Caramel Macchiato in one single - well, gulp.

"Caramel Macchiato, you say?" Boe repeated, intrigued. He licked his lips, suddenly very desirous to try it. "Well, it would be a shame to let the stuff go to waste..."

Whit begins to walk to find Dori when her P.H.O.N.E (Platonic Hearing Over Neverending Earth) rang. She checks her caller ID, why was Fall calling her?

"Hi Fall!!....hello, hello?....HELLO!"
"Stupid prank callers" Whit mutteres to herself. She continued to walk to find Dori. Whit felt very official when everyone had to stand in attention while she walked by. It felt so cool.

She goes to Dori's room when she sees the door cracked slightly. Dori was already talking to someone. Whit (being a preteen) has the huggest urge to stay and ease drop. She did.

"Yes, its amazing and Whit really has no clue" The random person said. Whit?! She listened in closer.

"Yep! No clue! I was able to completely turn her away from ANTI- I love brain washing! Give the girl a little love and some pink- and she's practicially your slave." They cackle together.

Whit gasps from the information she just recieved but keeps listening. So THIS was the reason she kept feeling odd feelings everytime She saw anything ANTI related- she sub conscience was telling her she belonged with them!

"She wrote them a stupid letter letter telling them not to mess with the MUPPETZ- so now they know we took her! It was amazing!"
Whit's blood was absolutely boiling- she felt so stupid! She knew what she was going to to do

Whit was now a secret double agent. She just needed now a way to tell ANTI she was on their side- or should she tell them?

Fall felt uneasy. Sure, he's an agent commited to doing evil, but should he be mean to his fellow comrades? Nervously, he mumbled, which made it a bit hard to hear his words, "Um, yeah, hi, Whit. Sorry, I punched in the wrong number. Well, I was trying to call Ellemo, but, you see, I got you. Heh heh... Er, if you need anything, let me know. Uh, bye!" Relief flooded the chief agent as he turned the phone off. I am NOT doing that again...

Regaining his pride, he tried to call Ellemo again. When the busy signal beeped once more, he knew that was the last straw. "I can't keep doing this anymore!" He hissed through clenched teeth. With that being said, he dialed a number, but this time it wasn't Ellemo's. "Hello. MUPPETZ Chief Agent Fall here. Who is this? I have some news."

"Oh, finally! I'm Agent Buggie, and I've been waiting for you to call since the MUPPETZ ship disaster! Your plans are often the best out of mostly everyone..."

Fall hesitated. The last time he had called the MUPPETZA7, there had been another receptionist. What had his name been, Winner? Wiener? Curious to the agent's absense, he replied, "Thank you. Before I tell you the plan, I want to know what happened to the receptionist before you."

"Oh, him? Strangely enough, all I know is that he got in trouble for something and got sent to the general. After that, no one has any idea what his fate is. So, with that aside, what's the deal? I'm all ears!"

A smug smile quickly formed on his face, and his brown eyes flicked with fury and fire. "Have you ever heard about MUPPETZYLVANIA?" He viciously explained. "It's the fine home of some of the mightiest MUPPETZ, squirrels, but do you know that the MUPPETZ CHARMERZ? I think we need to pay them a long-awaited visit. And from what I heard, the no-good happy-dappy ANTI team is there, too! Whether we find the CHARMERZ or not, we will not miss good old revenge!"

Moving over to Lia, he picked her up and laid her on his inflate-a-bed (he always comes prepared! ). He also found two sqooshed squirrels on the ground. They were both grumbling about their injuries, but boasting how they broke Lia's fall.

And yet, above all of this, all that CyKo could focus on were the squirrels who wouldn't release their glare upon him. They stood there, as if plotting amongst themselves, waiting for something. Something.

Being pulled away from his thoughts, he found a squirrel in his shirt which he promptly threw off of him.

The black high-heels on Clo's feet tapped to a non-existent beat as she made her way down the hallway. Suddenly, another noise joined in. It was similar to a chattering chorus.

She spun around and the chattering immediately stopped. However, her left eyebrow arched a bit as she looked upon 7 squirrels, each staring at her with large, black eyes. "Aw, how cute."

(((OOC: 12, if this doesn't work, just tell me and I'll edit. )

Lia did not realize that she was being moved onto Cyko's inflate-a-bed. After all, she was sleeping quite soundly. As she was falling asleep, the last thing she thought of was, Oh, those poor little squirrels... ( )

She was then sound asleep. Dreaming...

Lia was back at Primberly. She could remember very little about it, except for the fact that it was quite large and had a forest on the property. She was walking through the forest, when a large MUPPET came upon her rather quickly.

"Well, well," said the Kooky Monster rather sinisterly. It (or rather, he) waved an furry paw in front of Lia's face. "You shall remember nothing about this. Never!"

As the Kooky Monster said the word 'never', Lia woke up. She sat up and looked around the forest. For a moment she was lost in the forest of Primberly again. Stuck with the evil Kooky Monster, having her memories taken away. Forgetting who she was for so long...

"We're in danger," Lia shouted as she noticed the frightened looks of the squirrels.

The squirrel riding on Echo's shoulder refused to stop talking.

"Myname'sCherry!" he squealed in a shrill, highly-caffeinated voice. "WHAT'SYOURS?!"

"Thorn," said Echo, afraid that if she refused to answer, the squirrel called Cherry would do something awful, like, emit the fabled Squirrel Death Screech. "Why do they call you Cherry?" she asked, craning her neck to get a better look at him. Beady black eyes, glossy fur, fat rolls, busy tail...his overall appearance was almost...cute.

Echo shuddered, expelling the thought from her mind. "And why are you wearing an aviator hat and goggles?"

"I'maflyingsquirrel!" said Cherry happily.

Echo raised an eyebrow. "You can fly?"

"Notyet,yousillycoffeebean. I'mstillintraining. Nowingsyet,see? DUH!"

Echo rolled her eyes. "Of course. I wonder why I didn't see it before."

If Cherry noticed her sarcasm, he showed no sign of it. "TheycallmeCherry," he continued, "becauseonebrightsunnymorning,mysquirrelairforcerecruitsandIwerejustgetting
readyforanotherfunfilleddayofglidingthroughthetrees-wehavethesethings,youknow,hangglidingthingsthatwegrabwithourpawsandhang
ontowhiletrainingforwhenwereallygettoflywithrealhonesttogoodnesswings. Butanyway,wewereflyingaroundandtryingnottogetourselveskilled-you'dbesurprisedathowmanydeathstheairforcetrainingsqurrielshave,there'sallsorts
ofwaystogetkilledlikefallingoutofthetreesandlandingonthegroundlikeSPLAT,orgetting
eattenbylargefurrymammalsthatwehavenonameforbecausethey'resoawful,orcoffee
overload,thathappenedjustlastweektopoorSpazzy,ohwell,Ineverreallylikedhim
anyway.Whatwerewetalkingaboutagain?Ohyeah,weweretrainingonourhangliderswhenallofasuddenwesawthistreefullof-MMMPH!"

His rant was cut short when Echo swatted at him and nearly knocked him off her shoulder. "Never mind!"

"...andthenIateallofthem."

Echo ignored him. She was too busy staring at the giant letters "LIA" on the ground, feeling slightly disturbed by the squirrels' apparent fondness of their new Queen. She opened her mouth to ask Cherry WHY, but thought better of it just in the nick of time.

When Lia woke up and said, "We're in danger," Echo simply stared at her, blinking. Oh boy, the negative effects of coffee... She glared at Cherry in annoyance when he cringed, digging his sharp little claws into her shoulder.

"Oh relax," she told the frightened squirrels, then turned to Lia with what she hoped was a look of honest sympathy. "Lia," she said softy, "You've had quite the day. We all have. Are you...are you sure you're well?"

CyKo looked at Lia sharply. "What makes you say that? There isn't anything showing up on my radar."

CyKo showed his watch to Lia-- it had 3 needles, 2 were for the time, and the other swirled around constantly (it could be interpreted as both the seconds ticker or the radar itself), sweeping the area for signs of life. aside from inside the colony itself, nothing was approaching.

Lia looked tired. As an "order", CyKo had her sent to bed. Chunky replied that she would have the best bed in all the colony, stuffed with fluff that they found from a "silly old bear" that kept "ranting on about a Robin and honey".

"Lifeisaconstantbattlehere. We eat, or we be eaten. Wetriedtoeatthefunnybearbuthetastedfluffy, so we made a bedoutofhisinnards."

Slightly disturbed, CyKo walked along with Chunky, who continued to reveal the colony's secrets and history.

Lia just stared at the other agents. "I, uh, think I was still dreaming." She was still very tired, but did not want to go to bed. But when Cyko gave an order it was best that it was obeyed. Otherwise he'd go all Cyclopsy on you and glare with his one eye. ( )

So Lia, being pulled along by Chunky to the "softestbedinthewholeforest", went to bed.

The sprite gurl was extremely confused... because she'd been keeping in all of her words (which made it harder to concentrate on what was going on) she had used all her energy on keeping every word that came to her mind from coming out of her mouth... well it couldn't last forever and she very well knew it so... she gave up. "WELL!!!!! THAT WAS EXCITING!!!!! NOWSOMEONESHOULDTELLMEWHATJUSTHAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She was still holding the dress that she'd made for Lia "AND SOMEONE GIVE THIS TO MISS SQUIRREL QUEEN THERE TOO!" She snapped her scissors open and closed "ANYBODY ELSE WANT SOME ???????????" She looked around and saw that Echo person "HEY TOO LATE! WHAT DESIGN DO YOU WANT SWEETHEART???? I CAN MAKE ANYTHING YOU LIKE! (AS LONG AS IT COLOURFUL, AND ALSO THERE ARE NO REFUNDS!)"

After that rather revolting revelation about the bed, Echo had no desire or intention to listen to the squirrels tell her any more about this strange, strange city and the squirrels' even stranger ways. But just when she was trying to decide the best way to escape, she found herself shouted at by the little sprite whom she'd nearly forgotten about in the midst of all the craziness.

"A-A dress?" she stammered. "Colors?!" She tried to look excited about this, but inside, she was cringing. Echo never wore dresses - they were horribly cumbersome things and ill-suited for life on a ship. And Echo hadn't much liking for colors either...they reminded her of the MUPPETZ.

Does Thorn wear dresses? she wondered quickly. What sort of colors does a tree like?

"Green!" she blurted. "Yes, lots of green! Natural-looking, though, nothing fluorescent. And here, I'll just take that to Lia right away, you're welcome, no problem at all..."

And then, with the dress in hand, Echo commenced her fantastic getaway. Ignoring Cherry's annoyed grumblings, she went off in search of where they had taken Lia.

Summer was more confused than anything else. Poor Lia had said "We're in danger," the sprite girl had made a dress for Thorn, and CyKo was signaling for the agents to follow the squirrels to "something bed," which she had barely made out of the squirrel's carzy chatter. She hoped Lia had only been seeing things, she felt deep within her that there was danger coming, and oddly enough, she had a feeling it had to do with more than MUPPETZ this time. But why?

"Hi, Hummie!" Below Summer stood a tiny, and yet adorable critter. But to her suprise, it wasn't a squirrel. Is was in fact a mouse.

"Um, hello, mouse. And by the way, that's not my name," she simply informed.

"I wasn't calling you that because that was your name! You smell like perfume (and tea, ick!), but you also have a faint, yet still noticable scent of MUPPETZ. You're a HumETZ, aren't-" Before he could say anything, she covered his mouth with her foot. Thorn was walking nearby, and no way could she find out!

"Yes, I am," she urgently whispered to the mouse, "But please don't tell anyone! I only found out about this some time ago, and they would detest me if the truth came out now! And how come a fine chap of a mouse like you is with squirrels?"

"Actually, I'm a lot like you. My father's a squirrel, but my mum was a mouse. That's why my name is Squose. Anyway, I overheard some squirrels chattering among themselves. Many of them dislike having Lia as their ruler! So, they've secretly put a coffee perfume in her bed, but it's actually POISON! Ifwedon'tdosomethingshe'lldieandthatwouldbeevil!" Squose paused. "Oh, sorry. I start talking like a coffee-indulged squirrel when I get panicky."

Summer was horrified. Lia, Queen of the Squirrels, could go into never-ending sleep if she didn't do something! "Come, we must tell Lia or CyKo or someone!" She put the mouse in her pocket, and ran as fast as she could to catch up with CyKo, Lia, and the others. One squirrel, Chunky, glared at her with rage, and it became obvious that he had helped in trying to poison Lia. "Guys," she wailed frantically, "Please don't take Lia there! It's a trap!!"

(.M.U.T.A.N.T.Z. Island)

"You want to know what is going on here?" said the Count, a little too casually.

"Yeah," snarled Agent Thorn, doing a pretty good imitation of a bulldog.

"Well—" insert affected, modestly pompous little laugh here, "—it is my life goal to count to infinity."

"No, no, not that," the dryad said. "Why are all these mutants here? What's with the mind control experiments?"

She raised her eyebrows expectantly at him.

Awkward silence.

"Look, you tell me what I want to know, and I'll give you a crash course in counting your blessings. Then you kill me, I die contented because my curiosity is satisfied, and the road is cleared for you, armed with the power of gratitude, triumph in your quest to count to infinity, and little children all over the world will call you a hero—everybody's happy."

If the Count had not been mad, he probably wouldn't have struck such a deal with such a dryad. But fortunately, he was.

"All right, all right, I'll talk," he groaned.

"Good," Agent Thorn said. "Because I would have gotten it out of you anyhow; we have our ways. Take a seat."

The dryad leaned up against the banister, and the Count flopped down on the first stair in a flurry of dramatic black cape, and propped his arm on his knees and leaned his thin chin on his thin hand. His eyes took on a faraway look.

"It was about ten years," he said slowly. "The Czar had just died. News of it had just come to the island, and Ellemo, the chancellor, came to here and ordered—er, suggested that I use my island as a training ground for some of the, er, more spirited mutants.

"He told me my research was vitally important," the Count yawned, "and that I was to report all of my findings back to him. And I have. And I have manipulated these circumstances into being quite helpful for my numeric aspirations. But naturally, a mutant infestation drives down the market value."

The dryad narrowed her eyes at the Count, who stared reflectively at a particularly evil-looking dust bunny.

"I highly doubt that's the entire story," the dryad said coldly. "Everything Ellemo does is multi-layered. When you think it's bad, you can bet there's an even more sinister plot running underneath. I read that in his supervillain profile back at headquarters."

Suddenly, the Count began to chuckle. A humorless chuckle that made the the dryad's blood—or sap, rather—run cold. He was staring up at a painting on the wall.

At first the painting looked like nothing. It was an abstract, something one of the mutants could have done in a fit of rage with half a dozen cans of spray paint.

And then the dryad knew. She had seen it before—in a dream of a dream. Or a dream of a dream of a dream. Like looking at an adventure from a bird's eye view.

"It's a map," she gasped, the words falling from her lips before she could stop them, before she could think.

The Count jumped up, his lackadaisical attitude vanishing.

"What?" He growled.

"Nothing," the dryad said, shrugging her shoulders and wanting to run.

"Very well," he said, his lips very white. "Rogi, see that she is taken to the dungeon and locked up in the maximum security cell. I will be down to talk to her later—" his eye twitched, "—and if she does not give me the right answers, the next person she will meet is an executioner."

Cheyenne had seen and heard everything, thanks to his convenient hiding spot. The double-agent waited until the dryad girl had been led away by the groveling henchman before stepping out of the shadows and casually made his way over to the Count.

"You do have a way with the ladies, Paleface." Cheyenne said sarcastically as he leaned up against the railing of the staircase, being sure to avoid the spikes.

The rogue was greeted with an icy glare from the Count before the MUPPETZ stood to his over-dramatic height in an equally over-dramatic flurry of his cape. All that was needed to complete the illusion was some lightening and organ music.... Too bad Corter wasn't present.

"You have done well, Rougely. You are dismissed..." The Count gave a languid wave of his hand as he began ascending the staircase... dramatically.

"I'm still waiting for my money and the engine." Cheyenne called after the dark figure. The Count stopped, seemed to ever so slightly slouch as if letting out a sigh, then gave a command to the henchman who had just returned from locking up the ANTI agent.

"Give this man $300 plus the fiber combustion engine.... the one in the 3rd shelf of the 3rd case on the 3rd level." With that, the Count ascended the staircase and vanished.

After waiting for an extra 10 minutes while Rogi collected his payment and tried arguing his price down, Cheyenne finally had what he was wanting and proceeded to leave the castle. On his way out, the rogue took one last look at the painting/map/paint splatter that had seemed to catch Thorn's attention.

Hmm, could come in handy later.... the man thought as he shifted the weight of the engine that was slung over his back and adjusted his fedora brim before exiting the castle.

(((OOC: Eli: Hope you don't mind me using the Count for this post! )))

CyKo heard the loud rantings of Summer. Bolting towards the bed, he stuck his hand out in front it. "They say there's poisoned coffee powder on it! Nobody enter the area!"

..as he was saying this, Chunky inched forward. "TheQueenLianeedshersleep. Iwillcheckifitispoisoned." Chunky looked back to his friends, and walked towards them. He hugged a female squirrel. "It'llbeokay,dear." The female squirrel burst a tear.

Chunky moved back to the bed. "You don't need to do this-" CyKo started, but Chunky raised his hand in protest, cutting him off. "IdothisformycountryandforQueenLia. Itishonorable."

Chunky tasted it.