The Bunnera Castle guard opened one eye, only to find an orange dragon standing before him.

"Raaaaaggh?" it asked. The guard rubbed his eyes.

"What?"

"Raaaaaggh," the dragon repeated.

"Speak English!"

With a blinding flash of white light, the dragon morphed back into a blue rabbit.

"You fell asleep," the other Bunneran said. "you sure you wanna watch tonight?"

"I'm sure," the guard replied sleepily. "and no one's gonna think about attacking us, 'cause they know we're in good with Pufftop and all.."

"Yeah," the second guard murmured. "So, 'nite, I suppose,"

"Night," the guard replied. As soon as his partner left, he stared out at the rocky scenery of Bunnera.

"Stay awake!" he commanded himself. He kept his eyes wide open.

"Ugh..maybe a few minutes won't kill.." he told himself. Unfortunately, the very moment he shut his eyes and drifted off, was the same moment a dark airship crossed the skyline.

-

On this particular airship, a red dragon was admiring the familiar scenery, basking in the deja vu, but still disturbed by what happened on this same planet less than two weeks previous.

"Lord Mashtooth, sir?"

Mashtooth grunted. That voice had a too-familiar squeaky ring to it. Luplis grimaced.

"Uh, should we land here, sir?"

Mashtooth growled, "Yeah." He suddenly grinned. "Yeah..here's good."

Luplis didn't trust that smile. "Okay, sir-"

He squealed as Mashtooth grabbed him by his belt loop.

"Lord Mashtooth, why are you grabbing my pants?"

"Ah, no reason," he snickered and abruptly jerked the Swabbie up into the air. Luplis cringed.
"What did I do?!"

"DO YOU QUESTION ME?"

"Wha-YAAAHHH!" he wailed as Mashtooth raised him up higher. "UNCLE! UNCLE!"

"What are you, six?" Mashtooth laughed as he dropped Luplis. "Stay outta my way, Loopy, or I swear to myself you're getting it."

Luplis inched away, then broke out in a run. Mashtooth couldn't help but notice he was crying and holding his bottom.

-

Ronk stared up at the skyline. In all fairness, it was a boring night, no one to obliviate, not even a little robber. He sighed and waved down to Papes.

"It's all good," he called. Papes nodded.

"Same!"

Ronk stared at the rooftops. Same little brick house after another, a purple storefront once in a while..

Ping.

Snips ran up to Ronk breathlessly. "RONK!"

"Jeez, I'm right here!" he snapped. Snips shook her head.

"No! I know I'm crazy, and I might be tired and seeing things, but there's this ship crossing over by-"

Ronk smiled. "I get to pound someone's face in?!"

"NO!" Snips shrieked. "No, not unless you-" Snips paused.

Pingg.

"Snips?!" Ronk asked. Papes ran up to Ronk.

"What was that?! What was wrong with Snips? Did you see how she.."

"Papes?"

"Ma...oh, my..Ma.."

"Papes, jeez, they're spiders, get over 'em! No we've got jobs to do!"

"No, Ronk, oh, gawd, ohh no.."

"Papes?!"

"Yess?"

Ronk swore he could feel his heart stop. And if he weren't frightened to death, he might've given the 'intruder' a piece of his mind. Papes trembled in place.

"Ma...Mash...Mashtooth?"

Ronk turned around. Mashtooth grinned sickly at Ronk.

"Nice seeing you, chump," he sneered, slapping him roughly on the shoulder. He winced. Mashtooth turned to Papes.

"You too, shortstuff."

Papes shook his head. "We..saw..you..blow..up..!"

Ronk nodded slowly. "Yeah, like..with all the..gore?"

"Blow up?" Mashtooth laughed. "Blow up?!"
He slapped Ronk across the face. "Rocky here saw me blow up?"

With a loud snap, Ronk was thrust into a streetlamp. The light swayed and collapsed. Papes looked at Ronk.

"Ronk!" He turned to glare at Mashtooth. "What did you do to him?" he growled, balling his fists. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!"

"That was nothing," Mashtooth smiled, and grabbed Papes. Papes gulped. He, as well as Snips, Ronk, or anyone else associated with Mashtooth, could recognize what was coming.

"Backtalking," Mashtooth growled and tigthened his grip on Papes. Papes let out a shriek.

"Bwaktawlkin?" Papes gurbled. Mashtooth squeezed harder.

Oh..

Papes cringed. Already he could barely breathe. Mashtooth smiled deviously.

"Yes, pipsqueak, backtalking is the most annoying form of disrespect. And Mashtooth..he doesn't do backtalkers."

Papes gagged. Now he couldn't see anything but dark, swirling mist, and hear Mashtooth's throaty, victorious laughter..

"MASHTOOTH!"

Papes felt himself being dropped onto the stone street. As his vision slowly returned to normal, he saw the pink blur, the ears..

"Sni..Sni..Snips!" he gasped. "He's..he's too strong for you!"

Snips looked at Ronk and Papes. She fought back tears as she turned to Mashtooth.

"What did you do to them?"

Mashtooth stared at her, his face a mix of emotions. Snips cleared her throat.

"Well?" she said icily.

Mashtooth shrugged. "Eh, one was very close to cream cheese, the other guy, well, I guess maybe a fracture and a broken lamp."

Snips squeezed her eyes shut. Cream cheese?...fracture?...

She couldn't remember when Mashtooth attempted to strangle anyone. Sure, he would if he could, but he'd never actually tried. And although she could recall several times he'd done worse, it still managed to strike the most fear, mainly because of the 'slow and painful' process..
Snips glared at Mashtooth.

"Just...tell-actually, how are you here?" she stated. Mashtooth cast a glance at the ship hovering overhead.

"I've still got some buddies, or, baddies," he snickered. Then his eyes turned dead serious. "Not everyone turned traitor, Snips," he muttured. Snips stared at him blankly, mouth forming an O. He shouted out,
"OLIVAR!"

A short Swabbie, whom Snips immediately recognized as Mashtooth's number one and head of all the others, saluted him.

"Yes, sir?"

"You know."

"Yes, sir," Olivar smiled. Two space Swabbies leapt down from the aircraft, holding a covered object. They both had apologetic looks in their eyes, but other than that their faces showed nothing but loyalty to their risen leader.

Snips glared at the Swabbies in disbelief until recognition hit her. She blinked, trying to make the figures become clearer, but couldn't.
And everything went black.