Queens, New York City

Slade grinned triumphantly as he looked out over the crowded room. Once he and Gyles had gotten settled into their new time period and pirated home, they were all too glad to realize that they weren't the only criminals in the city. Upon getting out onto the streets, sleazy bars, and other assorted points of criminal interests, they had met many others like them. Now, many of these same criminals were presently congregating inside Tao's trashed apartment. For the last two weeks, the "Wild Boys", as they now called themselves, had alternately been having fun and making a living (by their standards) by hassling storekeepers and the like for money, dealing drugs, and just generally keeping the NYPD up in arms. The Wild Boys' numbers included petty crooks and murderers, and although the gang was no match for the more prestigious and powerful New York-based crime syndicates like the Kingpin's organization, the cunning Slade was hoping to change those odds in time.

"Osa just called. Said he'd be willing to meet tomorrow night," Gyles said, stomping over to his friend. He was referring to Tommy "Net" Osa, a small-time gang leader from the Bronx with a penchant for computers and hacking. Gyles adjusted his new black leather jacket, even though it was about two sizes too small for him. "Also, Randall racked in $900 bucks yesterday."

"And I was just thinking of a way to make even more," Slade murmured thoughtfully. Leading his friend down the hallway and towards the last bedroom at the end, he opened the door and pointed to the bed. Prince Tristan lay there asleep, Jess curled up next to him. Instead of his princely attire, Tristan now wore modern garb; a white T-shirt featuring the New York Knicks logo on it, black denim jeans, and a red baseball cap. Raising her head, Jess warily eyed the intruders, the beginnings of low growl in her throat.

"Shut up, ya stupid mutt!" Slade growled. Turning to his friend, he started to complain. "I thought we said we was gittin' rid of that dog?"

Gyles shrugged. As long as the mutt kept the boy occupied, he really didn't care one way or the other if she stayed. "What was it you was sayin'?"

"That we should sell that kid! In this time, you know how much desperate childless couples'll pay to get a kid of their own?"

"But shouldn't we wait for Morrigan's commands?..."

"Screw her! We ain't heard from her in several days now! She's probably havin' a grand old time ruling Wicklow!"

As they continued to debate, the two men left the room. Once they were gone, Tristan cautiously opened his eyes. He realized that one matter took precedence over everything else now –

escape.

Wicklow, England

"Ready?"

"Set."

"Oui."

"Ready, Big D!"

The four humanimals had finally left the gloomy depths of dungeon behind thanks to Dante, and were now sneaking through one of the castle's hallways.

"Sheila – look around and see if there's any enemies on patrol or something else we should know about. Adagio, get invisible and help her."

"You do not need to tell me twice, mon amie," the other ferret said in a hushed tone. As he concentrated, Adagio's form appeared to flicker and warp for a few seconds, like heat pouring off a hot desert highway, then finally vanished from sight altogether. Sheila, who was pacing back and forth with barely restrained energy while Adagio was focusing his power, finally zipped off down the corridor, a streak of white and blue. When the pair had gone, Dante turned to Palmer, chuckling softly.

"Poor Morg shoulda realized that there's still folks around here who know this old castle like the back of their hands -- or paws."

"I'll say," Palmer giggled. While they had been in the dungeon, Pyewicket had also told them of the whereabouts of the time-gateway. It was located in the king and queen's old bedchamber. Morrigan figured that both would never really need it again and had taken over the chamber for herself, placing the two inert rulers in a well-guarded room in one of the tower's.

Just as quickly as she had left, Sheila returned. A little afterwards, Adagio suddenly rematerialized behind her.

"There's a few guards around," the jill reported, "but they can all be easily avoided. There's no one near the royals' bedchamber right now, so you can bet your sweet tail that the ice queen herself is in there guarding that portal. Oh, I also gave one of the guards a little love-tap on the head at high speed." She smirked at this last part.

"Okay, so let's head towards the bedchamber then," Dante said. The four mustelids exchanged high-fives and continued slinking down the hallway, their weapons withdrawn.

Sniffing the air, Palmer cautiously peeked around the half-opened door and into the huge bedchamber. Inside, he could make out what appeared to be, at first glance, merely a simple hole in the wall – actually the time-gateway – on the leftmost side of the room near the bed. As dark as the inside of that remarkable anomaly was, a faint but tangible and almost eerie-looking gleam of gold light reflected from it onto the walls, like light reflecting off a watery surface. Palmer also recognized Rappleye, who was perched on the end of the headboard sound asleep, and a furry creature around the size of a small cat resting on a pillow that had been thrown onto the floor.

"Can you scent any magick traps or anything like that?" Sheila asked him, being careful to speak very low so as to avoid detection.

Shaking his head, Palmer replied, "I am capable of tracking corporeal odors, but cannot detect the presence of eldritch energy."

"… Ok-ay…"

"Hey, guys!" Palmer whispered over his shoulder, lapsing back into his normal mode of speech, "Take a look inside! What's that on the pillow there?"

Palmer's teammates all peered into the bedchamber. Even though the only light in the room was being cast by the time-gateway, the humanimals, having far better night vision then either a normal person or ferret, swiftly adjusted to dim light, and they saw everything just as clearly as they could in the daytime. Their eyes quickly found the creature that Palmer was asking about.

Adagio grimaced as he recognized the animal. "It is a rat!" he growled, the disgust in his voice obvious. In his youth, the red-furred ferret's family served as hunters for a French baron, flushing small game. Oftentimes, they were used to clear rats out of the nobility's homes as well, so there was no love loss between Adagio and rodents.

"And a good-sized one too," commented Dante. "I think that's our girl."

"Spiders, rats…" Sheila mused. "I wonder how far her lil' one-woman menagerie can go?"

"I don't know, but she needs to be stopped, that's for sure. Got the sleeping powder?"

Sheila reached on the inside of her tabard and into one of several pockets that had been sewn underneath the ornamented side. After a moment, she pulled out a small green glass vial filled with a granulated substance that Sir Eldon had given them. Stealthily slinking into the room, she uncorked the bottle and gently sprinkled a smidge of the dark grayish-green powder onto Morrigan's nose. Everyone held their breath as the rat sneezed. Suddenly, she relaxed, seeming to breath deeper and more slowly then before.

Dante nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, paisanos -- to the future!"

The ferrets whispered a collective "It's ferret-time!", transforming back into their normal forms, and leapt one at time into the time-gateway, towards their destinies...