The next morning we awoke to the sound of Rita's shouting. "Wake up! We're under attack!"

I jumped up, only to realize I had been hand-cuffed to the bed post just Le Frog had been. "Some one help us!" I shouted, pulling on the cuffs.

"No one can help you, Chosen One." Nate appeared out of the shadows. "You and the traitor will die for what you've done against me." He left us to ourselves as he walked up the ladder to the main deck.

Le Frog continued pulling on the hand-cuffs as I slumped down against the bed. "This wasn't the way I planned to die. I wanted to die happy, or at least like a warrior in battle. I don't want to die as a prisoner."

"I don't want to die that way either, Mia," said Le Frog, reaching into a pocket with his tongue. "This is good, since I won't allow either of us to die a prisoner." He pulled a lock pick out of his belt pocket and began working on the hand-cuffs.

I could hear all sorts of banging around and scuffling up above. "Please hurry, mon cher."

He glanced in my direction for a moment, then back to his work. "I'm trying, ma chere, believe me." He was diligent with the lock-picking, and in a few minutes, we were both free.

Since Le Frog was still injured from the day before, I ran up to the main deck, only to find Rita and the others backed up against the edge of the boat staring fearfully at something behind me. I turned to find Nate, as well as Le Frog's seven henchfrogs, standing maliciously near the steering wheel.

"Bonjour, Mia Démone," said one frog menacingly.

"Bonjour," I said in jest. "Ça va?"

"Enough fooling around, Mia." Another frog stepped boldly forward. "The Great One sent us to make sure you were immediately and permanently terminated."

"Why doesn't he say so, unless that is not him right there?" I asked.

The frog looked at Nate. "This guy? He's not the Great One. This man is simply a puppet, controlled by the Great One to keep an eye on you until we arrived. He's no longer of use to us." He nodded and three frogs grabbed Nate and threw him overboard. The others rushed at the frogs as I jumped in the water after Nate.

It took only a few seconds for me to grab him, but I knew I had been followed by at least three frogs. I brought Nate to the surface and left him on a cement landing while I dove back in to fight the frogs.

I swam to the left and up in hopes of catching a breath. I may have looked like a frog, but I did not have lungs like one. I broke the surface and managed to land on another cement landing, the frogs following close behind.

I tried to move to the left, but I was blocked by a frog who had hopped in the way. I tried moving to the right, but the same thing happened with the second frog. The third was standing in front of me, so I was blocked in with the wall behind me. They all pounced and, when I ducked, they all clonked heads and fell to the ground unconscious.

Laughing at them for falling for the oldest trick in the book, I bounced back onto the deck, where I found my friends surrounded by fiends. With my friends' help, I managed to send the three remaining frogs hurling into the water. I hopped over to where I had left Nate, only to find him gone. I searched everywhere, even under water in the event he might have fallen in, but to no avail. Nate Dink was nowhere to be found.

"Where is he?" I asked worriedly as I hopped back onto the boat.

I received an answer in an unexpected way. I heard a strange thundering sound and, when I looked up, I discovered a grey cloud looming over us. "How is it possible for a cloud to be in the sewers?" I asked aloud.

"When the Great One becomes a cloud, Chosen One," the cloud boomed at me. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you face-to-face, Mia Démone."

"The pleasure is all yours, Great One," I replied through gritted teeth.

"Another pleasure I have is discovering that Angelina Leets and Mia Démone are the same person. This way I can kill without as much bloodshed. It's very dirty work, you know."

"No, I wouldn't know what it's like to kill someone."

The Great One laughed. "Oh, that's right. The girl who serves justice without violence. Le Frog and his henchfrogs attacked you in your home in an attempt to collect you for your uncle, Steelbeak, but you told them you would rather die than live with him again. Before Le Frog could grant you your wish to die, Nathan Leets walked in and ruined it. One of Le Frog's henchfrogs killed your foster father because he was following Le Frog's orders . . . yet you just admitted your feelings for the mercenary!" The Great One yelled at me. "What kind of justice are you bringing to Nathan Leets by falling in love with his killer? You are becoming just as guilty as Le Frog and Bezu, the frog who killed Nathan."

I blinked away the tears in my eyes, my fury for the Great One growing stringer with ever word he said. "Where is Nate Dink?"

"Nate Dink?" The Great One laughed. "Oh, you mean my little marionette! He is in my headquarters, waiting for you to win the game."

"Game?" asked Jeanne. "What game?"

The cloud hovered closer until it was directly in Jeanne's face as it growled, "I wasn't talking to you, germ. I speak only to the Chosen One about my game as well as its terms and rules."

"What kind of rules, Great One?" I asked him, making sure not to raise his anger level.

He hovered close to me. "The rules for my game are very simple, Mia Démone. You will play my little game and, if you win, Nate is returned to you unharmed, you restore peace and harmony to Animatown, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

"What would happen should I lose?"

I could almost see a grin form in the cloud as he said, "You and your friends will be publicly executed, and Animatown will be in my complete control."

I thought about any other possible options. "What if I choose not to play your game?"

"You might as well be forfeiting the game, which counts as a loss and the same results for losing the game will occur."

I looked around at al my friends, then back at the Great One. "Fine; I will play your game. What are your rules?"

"There are only two rules; one is no weapons of any sort and two is no help from your human friends!" He glanced around at each one individually as if one might have suggested the converse of his statement. "The object of the game is to find Nate and help him escape alive before the sun sets. You must find my headquarters and, once you have discovered the labyrinth, make it to the center, where Nate is waiting for you. Once you arrive, I will ask you three simple questions. If answer all three correctly, you and Nate will be free and you will win the game."

"Where are your headquarters?" I asked.

The Great One laughed maniacally. "I practically left a trail of bread crumbs for you to follow. If you can't find my headquarters by sunset, Animatown will be doomed." In a second with a small flash of light, the Great One had disappeared.