Notes: Behold, it lives! I still don't know how often updates to this will be, but it will be more frequent than the nearly 3-month lull this went through (sorry about that).

"Okay," Mike said, dragging out the blackboard into the middle of the Pad. "We know that Zero is messing around with something in our future. The big question is this—what do we do about it?"

"Beat him to the punch," Micky said. "If we can figure out what he's doing, we can take action to stay away from whatever it is that'll be. Like… let's say he's going to have us on a cruise ship that's going to sink with us trapped on it. We just won't take any gigs on cruise ships—ever."

"We never could take any gigs on cruise ships," Davy reminded him. "Mike gets seasick, remember?"

"That was just an example…"

"Thing is, we don't know what Zero's going to do," Davy added.

"Well, knowing him, it'd be something that would try to pull us apart," Mike said. "But what?"

"Well, we've just gotta think…" Peter said. "When was the one time we turned against each other? What was the one thing that actually made us try to intentionally hurt each other?"

The quartet thought for a moment, each boy's eyes widening as he remembered all too well—

"April Conquest!" they said, in unison.

"That's it!" Mike said, snapping his fingers.

"He's gonna use April to set us up for a fall?" Davy asked, puzzled. "I thought we'd all given up on her."

"Not necessarily April," Mike said. "But it could be any chick. Let's face it, Tiny—it doesn't take much for you to get stars in your eyes."

"Mmh," Davy admitted.

"Then… we just gotta be careful with every chick we run into from now on," Micky said. "Make sure she's not on Zero's side!"

"How?" Davy asked, incredulously. "Walk up to her and go 'Hello, luv, have you been making a deal with the Devil lately?'"

"…Well, it sounded like a good idea in my head…" Micky said. "But you know what I mean—we just gotta be careful—"

He was cut off by a pounding on the front door. Mike took a few steps forward, as though putting himself in between the others and whatever threat was behind the door.

"Y'all stay back," he ordered, as he approached the door. "That could be our doom right now…"

"You guys better open this door!" yelled the bellowing voice of their landlord, Mr. Babbitt.

"It's a different kind of doom," Davy winced. "Hey… did we pay the rent this month?"

"I think so… Maybe…" Micky said.

"Possibly?" Peter asked.

"We were holding out for this gig," Mike informed them, grimly. He shut his eyes and opened the door. "Mr. Babbitt—"

"Don't start with me," Mr. Babbitt said. "It's bad enough that the four of you can't pay the rent on time, but having me serve as your messenger boy is too much!"

"Our wha…?" Mike asked, baffled.

"You mean to tell me that you know nothing about that lady who gave this to me to give to you?" Mr. Babbitt asked, holding up a wrapped parcel.

"Lady? What lady!?" Micky asked, certain that it had something to do with the mysterious woman that Zero would most likely use against them,

"Tall, blonde lady—wouldn't tell me her name but said that it was important that I give this to you right away," Mr. Babbitt said, handing the parcel over to Mike.

"Um… well…." Mike said, shrugging. "Thanks."

Mr. Babbitt just nodded and turned to go, but paused in the threshold.

"Are you guys in some sort of trouble?"

He was met with a rousing chorus of "No"s that he clearly did not believe.

"We'll get you that rent ASAP," Micky said, with a casual wave as the landlord decided that the subject wasn't worth pursuing. "If we get this gig, we'll even pay you in advance!" He locked the door as soon as Mr. Babbitt left. "…If we last that long."

Mike put the parcel on the table, and the four of them sat around it, staring.

"Well…" Davy said. "What do we do?"

"We probably should open it," Mike said. "Okay; y'all stand back—this could be a trap. …I said 'stand back,' not just stand there!"

The other three took only a half-step away from the table. The Texan glared at them all, but then, carefully, set about removing the wrapping paper to reveal an odd—but familiar—device that looked like a strange wristwatch.

"Hey!" Micky exclaimed. "It's that time-traveling watch thing that Professor Song let me borrow!"

"Looks like she's letting us borrow it again," Mike said, picking up the hastily-scribbled note that was included with it. "'Tried to phone, couldn't get through, trouble ahead, preset coordinates. Stay together and remember that things you have witnessed are fixed and cannot be changed—Professor Song.' And that last bit was in all capital letters."

"Well, now we know what to do," Micky said, strapping the Vortex Manipulator to his wrist. "We take back control of our future from Zero!"

"He won't be making it easy," Davy said.

"So? We've got the power of love, just like Mike said!" Peter reminded him. He grabbed ahold of Micky's shoulder, and Mike and Davy grabbed onto Micky's other arm. The brunet now hit the button on the device.

In an instant, the quartet reappeared on the beach, just outside the Pad—right at the foot of their back staircase.

"Um…?" Micky asked, looking around. "I think the professor got the coordinates wrong…"

"I don't think so," Mike said, looking at the device to see that they had only gone forward in time about a year. "Maybe we've gotta stake the place out and keep whatever chick is trying to get in from getting in."

"Well," Davy sighed, tossing a rock into the ocean. "I'll watch the beach."

"Someone oughta watch with you," Mike said.

"What, you think I'd let myself fall for this Chick of Doom?"

"No; I just don't like the idea of you out on your own while Zero's out there," Mike said. "Come on; we'll watch the beach. Mick, can you and Shotgun watch over the other side of Beechwood Drive?"

"Sure thing," the brunet said. "Come on, Pete."

The two of them headed around the Pad in order to get to the street, leaving the Texan and the English boy behind.

"I just hope we can stop whatever it is Zero has in store for us," Davy sighed.

"I don't see why we wouldn't," Mike said. "The professor wouldn't steer us wrong. She had us warp here for a reason, right?"

"Yeah," Davy admitted, as he looked out over the vast expanse of ocean. "It still looks as calm and peaceful as it always does. Hard to believe that something evil is coming…"

"Ain't it always like that, though?" the Texan mused. "Especially with us. All we want to do is play our tunes. We didn't ask for any of this."

Davy nodded in agreement, looking up and down the beach, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

"Thank you, by the way," the English boy said, after a moment.

"For what?"

"For making that vow. Now that I know we're in this together, I've got a better feeling about this whole—"

He was cut off by frantic cries from Micky and Peter; Davy and Mike ran towards the sound, but paused as the two headed for them.

"What's going on!?" Mike asked. "What did you see? Who was out there!?"

"No one," Peter said. "And that's the trouble?"

"What?" Davy asked, puzzled.

"We didn't see anyone," Micky gasped, trying to catch his breath. "But then we finally noticed a strange car parked outside the front door."

"A car…?" Mike repeated. "Well, that could be…" He trailed off. "Oh no. She's already in the Pad."

The quartet charged up the stairs, realizing that they had wasted the precious minutes that the professor had given them by sending them right in front of the back staircase. Mike was in the lead, taking the steps two and a time.

An orange set of doors now replaced the ones that Mike was used to—and he certainly hadn't expected the doors to swing open on his nose. He was knocked back, but held onto the staircase as the others joined him, looking through the open doors to see a woman kissing Davy as the other three stood in a daze—no doubt having previously been kissed by the woman, as well.

"No…" Peter said, shaking his head in horror as he glanced at their slightly-older counterparts.

"Oh, yes," a voice retorted.

The quartet turned to see Zero hovering in midair nearby.

"Ah, poor Monkees," he sneered. "Just in time to be too late…"

"This isn't over," Davy said, as the woman was now leaving—only pausing when future-Mike stopped to talk to her. "It's going to take more than that to stop us!"

"That was all I needed," Zero said. "I had made a deal with that young woman; I would give her the power of a kiss that will ruin the fate of all on the receiving end—under the stipulation that the first four recipients of her Kiss of Doom would be you. Fate will now plague you."

"There's still got to be a way to stop you!" Mike vowed. "And we'll find it!"

"That's the beauty of it—you can't," Zero said, waving the page from the Book of Ages at them. "It's written in here. It's now fixed. You put up a wonderful fight, Boys. But it was all in vain—just as I told you it would be."

And without another word, he vanished, his triumphant cackle resounding in the air.