Inside the tacky pink limo, from the backseat Pearl slipped off her sunglasses and glared angrily at BoBo, who sat mutely across from her on the opposite seat. Joel, still unconscious, was laying on his right side on the floor between the two villains' feet.

"BoBo," Pearl addressed the timid ape calmly. "who is this man and why should I care?"

"Oh, LawGiver, how rude of me." BoBo casually motioned toward Joel. "This is Joel. He built the robots and was onboard the Satellite of Love before Mike was."

"Uh-huh. I now know who he is but I still don't have a reason to care." She slipped on a pair of black leather clothes and flexed her hands into intimidating fists.

BoBo flinched nervously as he continued to explain the situation. "Well, since he built the robots he'll know how to program them and he'll be able to get Gypsy to cooperate."

Pearl looked down at Joel and used the tip of her boot to lift his head from the floor so she could see his face. "I'm impressed BoBo. Not only because you guys actually came with a good idea, but because this laidback looking fool is the one who built those infernal talking toys."

Retracting her foot quickly Joel's head hit the floor of the car with a heavy thump.

"Brain Guy!" Pearl yelled through the closed dividing window between the front and backseats. "Move it! I get the feeling that Mike or those robots could be nearby."

Rolling down the window Brain Guy acknowledged Pearl's order. "Yes, Pearl. Increasing speed."

Tom and Crow were in the backseat of the car excitedly telling Mike what to do as he continued to follow the limo. Cambot remained quiet and tried to keep from getting stepped on by Tom or Crow as they bounced around energetically.

"No Mike, go faster!" Crow yelled impatiently as he held onto he back of Mike's headrest. "Don't let them get away!"

"Keep back, don't let them see us!" Tom was trying to suggest being stealthy, as he ironically shouted over Crow.

"They took a left, merge!"

"Stay back by three cars! It won't be hard to track that pink abomination!"

"Mike! Look!" Crow pointed at a billboard. "There's a sale! Can we stop?"

"No!" Mike reached back with one hand and pushed the two nagging robots down in their seats. "Stop distracting me!" He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand before pressing at his sore side again. "This is dangerous enough, I don't need two backseat drivers, WHO CAN'T EVEN DRIVE, telling me what to do!"

Crow scoffed. "Geez, what a grouch! Can you believe this Servo? We're just trying to help."

Mike glared at them in the rearview mirror. "You can 'help' by not distracting me!"

"Uh, Mike?" Tom hesitantly spoke up.

"What?"

"They pulled off the freeway and you missed the exit..."

"Damn it!" Mike sped up so they could catch the next nearest exit as soon as possible. "We can't lose them!"

As the limo pulled off the freeway fewer and fewer cars littered the road, which allowed for the conspicuous limo to seemingly disappear inconspicuously.

"We're in the clear now Pearl." Brain Guy informed his tyrannical boss. "The private airstrip is already prepped and waiting for your arrival."

"Good!" Pearl leaned back in her seat and propped her feet up on Joel's side. "Now, we just need to take this simpleton to the castle and convince him to reprogram that irritating purple menace."

"'Convince'?" BoBo didn't understand Pearl's plan. "What do you mean LawGiver?"

"BoBo, you dumb, dumb monkey. It's simple." She leaned forward in her seat and smiled fiendishly. "He'll either get Gypsy to cooperate, or he'll be forced to watch helplessly as I dismantle his precious friend, piece by little piece."

"Ohhh..." BoBo looked down at Joel sympathetically. "I don't think that's very nice."

"That's the point, you idiot!"

"Oh! Sorry!" BoBo apologized for his naivety.

"Finally!" Mike found his way off the freeway and at the initial exit ramp that the limo had taken. "Now, where did they go? I don't see any sign of the limo!"

"Maybe they stopped at that sale." Crow unhelpfully suggested.

"No, they didn't stop at the sale! Stop asking!" Mike almost yelled.

Tom spotted a gas station at the side of the road. "Maybe you can ask for directions, I'm sure someone noticed a pink limo driving by."

"Good idea." Mike pulled up the station and saw an employee checking the pumps. "Hey buddy! Did you see any strange vehicles go be here not too long ago?"

"The pink limo?" The experienced employee never looked up from his work as he flatly answered.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Yeah, kind of hard to miss. It went east, toward the old airstrip."

"Airstrip?!" Mike looked back at the bots. "If they get on a plane we'll never catch up to them in time!"

Mike nearly floored the car as he pulled away from the station and took the eastern road.

Crow leaned forward into the front again and began messing with the dials on the radio.

Tom leaned up next to Crow. "Uh, Crow? What're you doing?"

"Looking for some dramatic chase music, what does it look like I'm doing?"

"Good idea." Tom sat back.

"No," Mike tried to push Crow back. "bad idea. Distracting idea."

"But I almost-" Mike had put his arm across Crow's mouth and pushed him all the way back. "Fine." Crow pouted.

After parking the limo Brain Guy and BoBo headed toward Pearl's private airplane. Private pink airplane.

BoBo was carrying Joel in his arms again, while Brain Guy was patiently awaiting Pearl's next barking order as he stood idle next to the plane.

"Brain Guy?" BoBo paused momentarily to speak with his colleague.

"Yes BoBo?"

"I don't really like LawGiver's plan, and I kind of feel bad about doing this."

Brain Guy looked at Joel, still unconscious with a small bump forming on his head, in BoBo's arms. "As strange as it sounds, I feel slightly bad about doing this particular scheme as well."

"Then maybe we shouldn't do this." BoBo suggested hopefully.

"Maybe we should keep doing as we are told, lest we suffer the wrath of Pearl." He motioned with his eyes for BoBo to get his hairy butt on the plane before Pearl punished him.

Pearl made her way toward the plane, her twisted grin even broader than before. She climbed the stairway to enter her plane. "Alright you losers, let's go!"

With BoBo and Joel already onboard Brain Guy followed Pearl inside the plane, pulling the door shut behind them.

The plane taxied toward the runway.

Mike and the bots pulled into the small airstrip just in time to see the pink plane roaring down the strip for take off.

"We're too late!" Mike admitted as he watched the plane take to the sky. He stepped outside the car and watched helplessly as his greatest nemesis disappeared with his best friend as a hostage.

Tom, Crow and Cambot stood next to Mike and watched as the pink object in the sky became increasingly smaller as it flew further away.

Mike leaned against the side of the car and slid down to the ground, bowing his head in his hands in a defeated manner.

"Mike?" Tom hovered down next to his friend. "What do we do now?"

"Nothing."

Crow didn't like that answer. "What do you mean 'nothing'?"

"I mean just that, nothing. There's nothing we can do, so that's what we're going to do."

Crow angrily and forcefully bit Mike's arm.

"Oww! You bit me!" Mike cradled the offended limb with his other hand.

"You're damn right I did! We're not going to do nothing, we're going to do something! Anything! We're not going to lose Joel again."

"He's right Mike!" Tom sided with Crow again. "Before we had no way of keeping Joel onboard the satellite with us and we had to say goodbye. We didn't see him for another four and half years. Four years was too long to wait, I can't imagine going the rest of my life without seeing him again!"

"Yeah!" Crow authoritatively chimed in. "Besides, you were just as adamant about getting us home and stopping the 'Mads' as Joel was, what's changed Mike?"

Mike looked up at his two encouraging friends, his doubt fading.

"Remember, we were prisoners when Dr. Forrester and Pearl experimented on us, yet we survived. Now we're free and can go anywhere at any time and do anything!"

Tom cleared his throat and whispered to Crow. "Anything that's inside the law..."

"Whatever, but my point is, MIKE... We're not helpless! And we don't quit! Me and Servo and Cambot are going to find a way to Castle Forrester, and we're going to rescue Joel, with or without you!"

Mike put his hand on Crow's shoulder. "You're right! We shouldn't give up! But... we still have a problem, you know, besides Joel being taken captive."

"What's that?"

"We don't know where Castle Forrester even is."

"Oh, right..."

A distant but familiar voice interjected. "Excuse me, did you say 'Castle Forrester'?"

...to be continued...