Ok Chapter Three. I hope you are all enjoying the story so far! I'm soooo sorry about how long this has taken. I've been battling last-minute school things and writer's block. But hopefully the next chapters will come faster.

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Criminals

"Hey Syl? Are you sure you're okay?" Terry asked.

Sylvia was sitting on a low wooden bench that resembled a doctor's examination table. "I'm fine. Don't start saying I'm sick!" She yelled before Terry or Lill could even open their mouths. Sylvia took a deep breath, "Just trust me, we do not want those people around. Especially Ace."

A knock was heard at the door. Butch entered. "Sylvia? Are you okay?"

"She's fit as a fiddle and twice as stringy." Lill replied. With that Terry and Lill left the room. Tia walked in.

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Look guys I'm fine okay?"

She tried to get up off the bench. Tia pushed her back down. "Oh no you don't. Not until you tell us what's going on."

"What's going on?" Sylvia asked back. "All of you guys had a mental breakdown sometime or another since we got here. Remember Tia? When you thought water was going to kill you because you used to make your machines run by steam? And you Butch! You thought your mother was going to ground you! For crying out loud we're 1,999,000 miles from nowhere and you never even knew your mother! Can't I go nuts sometime? It's rabbit discrimination I tell you! Rabbit discrimination!"

Tia sighed. "You can go nuts but really- that wasn't nuts. That was cold…" She put a hand to her face, "And mean… There's a difference."

"Can't we talk about this another time?" Sylvia whined.

Butch shook his head. "Start talking."

Sylvia looked at him. Although he was a full foot above her ears she stared him down. "Don't act like you're so tough. You may have been a murderer in the past but now you're just a big marshmallow with muscles."

"I may be a marshmallow." Butch said. "But please, can't you just tell us why you hate him?" He bent down and looked at her.

She looked away. "He didn't look." She said in a whisper. "He didn't look."

Tia and Butch looked at each other. "Didn't look?" Tia prodded.

"You know how it went. I was framed and condemned along with you guys…

Flashback

A large rocket was stationed at the edge of Acmetropolis. Around it was a large crowd. Random shouts spilled through the air…

"Kill them!"

"She was framed!"

"Stop-"

"-hell I'll tell you what's-"

"Evil-"

"-end them away!"

"Shaddup you varmints!"

The cause of the commotion was soon visible as the crowd around the ship parted for a police truck. The truck drove through the crowd to the rocket and parked. The back doors opened and three policemen jumped out. Behind them were a dozen chained prisoners. Among them was a younger version of Tia, Butch and Sylvia, as well as others from the village. All of them wore chains on their wrists that connected to their necks. Some even had steel plates that looked like stocks. All of them were smiling except Sylvia.

In fact she was yelling at the top of her lungs. "It wasn't me! I didn't do this! Don't send me with these criminals I'm not one of them! Listen to me!" But no one did. The crowd was laughing at her.

"Don't try to wriggle your way out of this one! Everyone knows you killed the Prime Minister!" A man called.

Sylvia opened her mouth but Tia nudged her. "Just give it up already. Be proud. You actually killed the guy a bunch of us were targeting. I still can't figure it out. How did you do it?"

"I didn't." Sylvia stared at Tia next to her. "Why should I be proud?"

"Because you did it."

"But I didn't!" Sylvia said again.

Tia looked Sylvia in the face. "You really are telling the truth aren't you?"

Sylvia's face broke in relief. "Yes I am."

"Well I doubt that anyone else will believe you outside of these people." She gestured to the rest of the line.

"Why?"

Butch smiled a smile straight out of a horror film, "We are all high-class criminals here. We kill because we believe there's a reason. Or there's a big amount of money promised. Or we just like how high we get off it. But we ain't sorry. Hence," he pointed at the ship, "why we're being exiled."

"But I didn't do anything!" Sylvia resumed her pleads to the crowd.

Tia laughed evilly and followed the line into the ship. Butch shoved Sylvia onto the ship before him. But as he entered he yelled, "I'll be back SUCKERS!" Laughed and went in as docile as a lamb.

Inside the ship Sylvia ran to the nearest window. Through it she saw the crowd, jeering and laughing. She started to search the crowd for a face she knew. There were other humanoid animals in the crowd, a giant brown Tasmanian devil wearing a wrestler's uniform, a black duck was walking from the viewing area to the pool across the street, and running through the crowd was a blue roadrunner with a pizza box heading to the press box. The roadrunner was zipping through tight spaces randomly and almost ran into the brown coyote wearing a white lab coat and glasses. 'Probably someone from Acme Tech figuring out how to build an improved rocket that's better for the environment or something.' Sylvia thought bitterly. Then she spotted a pair of ears started to shout and realized they belonged to a yellow girl rabbit.

Sylvia was slowly realizing that she wasn't going to get out of her current situation. She desperately kept searching the crowd. Finally she saw him. Sylvia locked her eyes on the grey rabbit that was her brother. She started to bang on the window and yell as hard and loud as she could, trying to get his attention. "ACE!" she screamed. "Ace please! Just look at me! Ace look at me!"

Ace was looking at the rocket ignoring the form in the small window. His eyes scanned the length of the ship and saw the form in the window. Ace's eyes connected with hers. Sylvia's voice was lost in the crowd. Ace looked down at the ground hugging himself and shaking his head.

Sylvia felt a rumble under her feet that announced the rocket's departure. She increased her yells. "Ace please! I just want to see you one last time! ACE!"

Ace lifted his head as though he had heard her. But he closed his eyes and turned his back to the ship still shaking his head sadly.

"AAACCCEEE!!!" Sylvia screamed at the top of her lungs. "AAACCCEEE!!!"

The ship started to rise up into the clouds. The other prisoners were covering their ears. "Shut up already!" one called.

"Yer' not getting out now!" Another one said.

Tia stood up from her place in the corner. Gently she laid her hand on Sylvia's shoulder. She tried to think of something to calm the white rabbit down but could only come up with the lame statement, "Its okay." Sylvia crumpled to the ground. She didn't say a word. Tia shook her head. Then she turned to the others in the circular cabin. "We all know what's going to happen now."

Butch stood up as well. "We might as well all become allies. After all we're all criminals and we are all being sent into the desert." There was a general murmur of assent through the criminals. "I guess we should start with names, what we're here for, and what our specialty is…" He scratched his head.

"I'll start." Tia said. She stood up to her full height (which wasn't much) and spoke. "My name is Tia; I'm here because I set a bomb in the main chamber of the prison and because I killed most of the police force and freed the prisoners in one blow. Not to mention a couple civilians." The people cheered. "Thank you! Thank you!" Tia smiled. "And My specialty is mechanics and computers. I am after all an evil genius."

Tia motioned for the man next to her. He was about a head taller than Tia and had bright red hair. He was dressed like a cowboy complete with a hat. "My name is Kim." Butch sniggered. "Don't laugh!" Kim's cheeks reddened slightly. "I'm the crazed arson guy! You know the one who made all those assassinations?" Everyone 'Oohed' and 'Ahhed' collectively. "Yeah. That's right. My specialty is…" he paused for dramatic effect. It failed miserably. "Fire! What else?" He sat down.

Butch laughed. "Ok. After that… stunning performance… who's next?"

A dark woman stood up. She was almost as tall as Butch was. "I'm Jesop. I am the best thief in the city. I've stolen everything. And once I stole the Prime Minister's wife. Almost had all the money I could want." She sighed, pushing back her dark grey hair that was falling out of a messy bun. On her left arm was a long blue scar. "My specialty is weapons. All types any size. I can work with it." She looked next to her. "You're next."

A man stood up. He was wearing a long coat with a hood. It fell back from his face. He was a grey bobcat with brown spots. "Terry. My name is Terry." His voice was shaking as though he was nervous and had a slight British accent to it. "I poisoned everyone in my restaurant." His voice became steady. "It was fun. They didn't even taste anything bad. It's my specialty it is. Herbs that is." He smiled widely. No one reacted. "The Mayor was in there. I got him." At that statement the others cheered.

"You got rid of the tyranny!" Kim said brightly. "You're all right after all."

Terry smiled and gestured to the man with black hair next to him. When the man stood up the three women, one with blue hair, one with purple and one with blond, next to him and another man with orange hair and glasses stood up. "We're the gang that destroyed the FBI in two days. We're the CPH: Common People's Help." The four of them stuck their fists into the air with a cry of, "Long live the Common People!" They dropped their hands to the ground as many others cheered loudly.

"You got rid of them?" Jesop asked excitedly. "I'm like you're biggest fan! I can't believe I'm on the same exile unit as the CPH!"

The man with black hair held up his hand. The group quieted down. "I'm Jake. I'm the leader of this group. My specialty is lying. You know convincing people of stuff?"

The women with blue hair spoke after a gesture from Jake. She had on white gloves and kept flinging them around. "I'm Suzen. I'm with Jake. My specialty is locks and keys. I can get through any and every lock made."

The man with glasses and orange hair stepped up. "I'm Himilton. I'm the cook. They have to eat."

Jake laughed. "Yeah but you also are in charge of our disguises and stuff. Stop acting like you're not important."

"Whatever." Himilton shrugged.

Two other women were standing with the group. The shorter one pushed back her purple bangs out of her eyes and spoke. "I'm Twity. I'm the information girl. And what's even better…" she dug in the pocket of her coat and brought out a small square piece of grey material. "I smuggled in a data pad. We have access!" The rest of the group nodded at each other and whispered excitedly. "We'll at least be able to use it for a couple weeks. But we need a charging device."

"I can whip one of those up no problem." Tia said. "They have no idea. Those fools are stranding us in the desert with a mechanical goldmine." She smiled manically.

Twity nodded. The girl with blond hair opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. She nudged Twity and glared at her. Twity looked puzzled for a moment and then realization dawned. "Oh! Geez," she dug into her pocket again. "Here ya' go little lady." She said in an old-fashioned southern accent.

The girl rolled her eyes and grabbed the thing in Twity's outstretched hand. She placed a round green piece of metal on her neck. It shot out yellow wires and dug itself into her flesh. Soon all that could be seen of it was a small discolored bump on her neck. There was a quiet clicking sound and the girl spoke. "That's better. I thought you'd never give it back." The crowd stayed silent waiting. "Oh, I'm Dylin. I'm the structural person. I make sure their crazy plans will work out with a building as well as building all their vehicles."

"What is that thing on your neck?" Butch asked.

"That's my voice box. My real one got burned out when I was young so I made my own." Everyone stared. "It was my punishment for stealing food from the emergency stash. I was the last one before the humanity laws." No one moved. To go through life without a voice just because you stole bread was unthinkable. Dylin rolled her eyes again. "Oh get over it. Boo hoo- so I grew up a cripple. Now who's next?"

"I'm Lill." The lump on the floor said. Lill looked up and revealed a pointed snout. She was a fox but she didn't stand up. "I'm here because I blew up the Children's Cancer Hospital." Everyone gasped. Even Sylvia from her corner looked up in disgust. "I put them out of their misery." She said. Now she did stand up, her golden honey colored coat shined in the sun. "They were just dying there. Being put through all sorts of torture by those so-called doctors! I GAVE THEM PEACE!"

Tia walked over to her. "You destroyed families."

"Yes but now they don't have to constantly worry about their children. They don't have to worry if they're sad, happy, in pain, or even if they died during the night." Lill stared down her snout to Tia. "They may have been put through pain but now they have moved on." She leaned back against the wall. "I'm not sorry so no one should say anything. My specialty is diseases. I know more than most doctors."

Butch scratched his head. "I guess that's true. The families are in a better state financially." He looked around the group. "Oh, I'm next aren't I?" He laughed dryly but no one joined in. "Um… ok. My name is Butch. I'm Butcher the mass-murderer. My specialty is working. You know like wood, clay, that kind of thing. I'm good with my hands."

The others nodded and there was a general sigh of recognition around the group. A very tall old woman, with white hair and an even whiter suit on, stood up. "I'm Sarah but call me Granny. I ran a train off its tracks. There was a political meeting inside it. But I didn't know that. I'm good with kids." The group murmured as she sat down.

"You got the train off its tracks all by yourself?" Asked Twity. The woman nodded.

"All right oldy!" Kim shouted as some scattered applause went around.

Granny whipped her cane around and pinned Kim to the wall with it an inch from his nose. "Call me Granny, sonny. Or I'll break your nose." She sang tauntingly. Kim nodded quickly. Granny sat back down and said sweetly, "I bet you're all just excited to get to your new home!"

Everyone turned their attention to Sylvia. She was still on the floor in the corner. "Um… hey girl? You're up." Dylin said. Sylvia didn't move.

Tia walked over to her and knelt down next to her. "Hello?" She put her face directly in front of Sylvia's. There was still no reaction. Tia slapped her across the face. "Wake up!"

Sylvia did look up. The others listened eagerly. "I'm Sylvia."

"What are you here for?" Jake asked. "You don't look like a criminal. I've never seen you before."

"Yeah!" Twity said. "You must have done something really bad to have the public not know!"

Suzan came over and looked at Sylvia. "Hey, aren't you the girl that killed the Prime Minister?"

All at once there was excited whisperings. "Really?" Kim asked.

"No way!" Himilton said.

"It is you!" Screamed Terry.

Sylvia stood up angrily. "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!! FOR THE LAST TIME I WAS FRAMED!!!"

Everyone went silent. Butch stared at Sylvia. "You didn't do it?"

"Don't get me wrong, I hated the guy." Sylvia said. "But I didn't kill him."

Lill came over and looked into Sylvia's eyes. "You're telling the truth?" Sylvia nodded. "She must be. They don't exile people who are sorry for their crimes."

"That's what I was telling you." Sylvia crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know what you criminals are planning but leave me out of it."

"We can't really do that." Jesop commented. "We're all in this together now."

Suzan nodded. "Come on. We're not that bad."

"We need to pick a leader of some sort, whether Sylvia is in on it or not." Butch said.

"Ok." Terry said. "Who wants to do it?" No one answered. "Umm… Who should we nominate?"

Jake looked around at the group. "I think the two best candidates are me and Sylvia."

"Really?" Himilton asked. "Why?"

"Well, I am the leader of CPH already and Sylvia doesn't have anything against her." Jake replied.

Lill cocked her head to the side. "Run that by me again. I don't get it."

Twity sighed. "All of us are here because we did something terrible. But Sylvia didn't do what they accused her of so her record's clear. So technically speaking she is the trust worthiest out of all of us. And Jake here has experience being a leader."

Dylin nodded. "I like those choices. Let's vote."

"Sure why not?" Tia said.

Sylvia stood in her corner shocked. "Wha-?"

"All in favor of Jake being the leader raise their right hand – or paw – and say 'Aye'." Tia commanded. Jake, Twity, Suzan, and Terry raised their hands and shouted "AYE!"

"Okay that's five." Butch counted.

"Four." Twity said.

"Four!" Butch said brightly. "Now all in favor for Sylvia do the same thing except shout 'Nee'." This time Tia, Butch, Dylin, Lill, Kim, Granny, Himilton, and Jesop raised their hands and shouted "NEE!"

"Eight… The 'Nee's have it!" Tia said.

"Oh well." Jake sighed. "Congrats Sylvia you're leader now. Feel free to ask me whatever."

"But- I- How- Who-" Sylvia kept trying to say something. "WHAT?" she finally got out.

"You're the leader!" Everyone shouted.

End Flashback

Tia laughed. "I remember that. You kept stuttering the rest of the trip."

"And for the rest of the week after." Butch added.

"Anyway, that's what happened." Sylvia shrugged. "I couldn't get it out of my head that at the last moment he didn't look at me. All this time I haven't been able to remember his face clearly. I could only see the back of his head in my mind. Now that he's back, I don't know." She put her face in her hands.

Butch put a hand on her shoulder. "We can figure it out. As of now they are on the outskirts of the dome. If we need them they won't be that hard to find." Sylvia looked up.

"We should keep going. I'm sure you'll think of something. You always do."

Sylvia nodded. 'They're right. We can come up with a plan sooner or later. But now I have duties.' She thought. "We might as well keep going with the day."

With that the three friends went out of the house. As they walked into the town square small blurs of color ran into Tia knocking her over. After the dust settled around them Sylvia and Butch saw that it was only the children. "Sven, Michael…" she laughed addressing the two small foxes, "Get off of Tia."

The two golden-grey foxes laughed and got off of the struggling Tia. They looked exactly the same except one was a head shorter and had a white circle around one eye. The tallest one spoke, "Who were those people that were here earlier? One of them looked like you Sylvia."

Sylvia shook her head. "They are very bad people Michael. They were sent here to steal our food."

"Wow." The fox with the circle said. "Did the others send them?"

"No Sven." Tia said. "And can you kids stop running into-" But before she could finish another couple of blurs ran her over. "-me." Tia finished weakly.

This time it was a golden bobcat with grey spots and a human child with red hair. The bobcat was abnormally small and started to grow larger until she was as tall as Michael. She smiled. "I did it! I beat you here Kelly! Now I'm in charge!"

"No you're not!" The girl named Kelly cried out.

"Yes I am!"

"No you're not!"

"Knock it off." Butch said as he lifted the two squabbling girls into the air. "Ellie," he shook the bobcat gently, "Kelly," he shook the girl, "stop fighting."

"Put me down!" Kelly and Ellie yelled together.

Butch smiled genially and complied. The children immediately started a game of tag around the adults. It was a perfect scene of domestic tranquility. Everyone was all smiles and the children were an image of childhood bliss. Everything would have been perfect – had there not been eyes watching the scene from the bushes.

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Ace, Rev, and Lexi were watching Sylvia and her group of friends. "Are you sure we should be here?" Lexi asked Ace in a whisper. "Your, sister, said she would kill you if she saw you again."

"Yeah and she looked pretty serious when she said it although seeing her now you wouldn't believe she looked like a cold-blooded murderer when she said what she said back then about what she would do about the future." Rev commented.

Ace blinked. "She looks so… happy."

Lexi stared at him. "Well, I bet those are her close friends."

"But they're criminals." Ace said. He shook his head. "I can't believe they all survived."

"We should get out of here." Lexi said decidedly. Ace turned to her to say something but she cut him off. "Look, until we get a plan about what we're going to do it would be better to just stay out of sight. I know you want to talk to her but you have to wait." Ace nodded and the three of them went quietly back to the makeshift camp in the woods.

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Sylvia left the children with Butch and Tia, trusting them to return the offspring to the appropriate families: Ellie, the twins, Michael and Sven to Lill and Terry and Kelly to Jesop and Kim. She smiled faintly at the memory of the double wedding a few years ago when the fox and bobcat had joined and on the other side of the square the doctor and nurse had tied the knot. And then the children had come along… Sylvia opened the flap of a small hut near the center of the town and sat down on the bed in the corner. Yes, things just seemed to fall into place back then. But then that meteor had hit…

Flashback

The natives of the village were doing their jobs as normal, looking as if they were straight out of a medieval popup book. Twity had her hands full with Kelly and the twins. Kim had another burn that was being treated by Terry. Lill was playing with Ellie, who was a toddler. Granny was telling Lill about her days as a mother. Dylin and Sylvia were fixing the shield. Himilton was making lunch. Jake was arguing with Tia about something or other. Butch was helping Suzan get more wood for the cooking fire and a new house.

Himilton reached up and rang a bell to signal that lunch was ready. As the group gathered to eat Sven stopped and looked straight up into the sky. Michael looked at him sideways and glanced up too. The two foxes opened their mouths at the same time and said, "Wooooaaaah!"

The adults of the village looked up very confused. In the sky was a giant fireball heading away from them.

"Where's it going?" Kelly asked.

Tia whipped out a data pad and typed stuff into it. "It's going to the city."

Butch looked at the falling meteor. "What will it do?"

"I don't know." Tia said.

Lill shrugged. "I'm guessing something bad."

"Of course it's something bad dearie!" Granny said brightly.

Kim pointed at it, "Oh it's on fire! Coolness! A burning rock!"

"Kim you're scaring the kids." Jesop said.

Dylin edged to a shelter. "I don't like it. Let's run for cover."

"Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!" Himilton sang.

Dylin looked at him with a glare of pure evil. "Don't make me hurt you."

"Don't hurt him Dylin." Twity said. "But I agree it doesn't look right."

"It's going over the horizon." Sylvia whispered. As the meteor disappeared from sight there was a loud bang. A ripple of light shot from where the meteor had disappeared and grew larger and larger.

"Mommy!" The children ran to their respective mothers and hugged them tight.

All the families hugged each other tightly. The CPH grouped together around Granny, and Butch, Tia, and Sylvia started to run around battening down anything loose.

The light got closer and closer. Then everything went white and faded into black…

End Flashback

Sylvia smiled. Then they had all gotten their powers. She had lasers from her eyes and hands, Tia could turn into a machine, Butch could summon wood demons, though he had trouble controlling them, Jake had super speed, Suzen had golden rope snake things, Himilton had water powers, Twity could control things with her mind, Dylin had force fields, Kim could now control and summon fire demons, Jesop could eject poison, Kelly turned invisible, Granny could make unanimated objects animated with a soul, Terry could talk to plants, Lill could tame animals (which really helped with her children), Michael had bubble transports, Sven had illusions, and Ellie could shrink. It was good.

'What brought all these thoughts along?' Sylvia thought. She lay down on her bed. "I'm thinking way to much about the past. Tomorrow we'll decide what to do about Ace and the rest of them."

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At the same time Ace was sitting with his team. "Guys we have to figure out what we're going to do."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Duck yawned. "I'm tired."

"Surprisingly, Duck's right." Tech said. "We should get some sleep and figure out what to do later."

Ace sighed in defeat. "Okay. Tomorrow we'll figure out what to do about Sylvia and the rest of them."

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There! I'll get the rest up soon! If you have any ideas just send them to me! I need all the help I can get! Happy summer! School's out!