A/N - Hello again everyone! Welcome back to a new section of the story which starts today and runs for the next ten installments. I nominally call this the "Trouble Makers" Arc.

Meanwhile the standard disclaimer: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. I own only my own characters and this story. Now here's chapter 25:

25 – FLOATING

Now we have to return west across the continent and back to earlier in the day to meet up once more with the city of Metramegopolis in the place where we last saw it – speeding east at a rate of 2,000 kilometers per hour.

During the 30 minutes the city was flying at accelerated speed almost everyone remained near a window or a video screen and watched the land flow by underneath them. The area where the city had been located before take-off had been very close to the western edge of the continent. The western ocean, although it could not be seen from the roof of the city, was actually very near to the city's western gate. The land of the coastal area was somewhat hilly, but not that rugged, with a lot of flat patches. That all visibly changed almost as soon as the city began moving east. High, rugged mountains appeared very quickly and the city's guidance system had to react quickly to them. Fortunately most of the peaks did not reach high enough to affect the city's progress, but the guidance system still had to watch out for possible hazards and avoid them. There were more than just a few very nervous people watching the land go by during that initial flight. When the city finally slowed back down and came to a stop more than one person gave an audible sigh of relief.

In Toothy's office the little group that had been watching the land go by sat in silence for several minutes after the city came to stop. As far as they could see the land below the city was mountains, mountains, and more mountains all the way to the horizon (and probably a good deal beyond too). And not pleasant gently sloped mountains either; these were jagged, steeped-sided, rocky mountains. Complete mountain wilderness. The lower slopes were thickly forested, but the land above the tree line was bare and rocky. A few of the peaks had snow. Then, almost as if a signal had been given, all five of the watchers exhaled simultaneously.

"Well" said Barry standing up from his place, "that was quite something."

"I wonder where we are" said Flippy, "and please, don't say that we're in the mountains."

"These mountains all had names once" said the Buddhist Monkey softly, "I suppose if we searched the central computer hard enough we could find them again."

"That's not a bad idea" said Flippy thoughtfully, "even if no one has lived in this part of the world for thousands of years it would be much easier to plot strategy if we had definite names to put on these locations instead of just referring to them as, say, "mountain 300, or valley 458"."

"Wherever we are" said Toothy, "it's a thousand kilometers east of where we started. Hopefully it's far enough away from any Marauders that we won't have to worry about them for a little while and can start gathering our full strength."

"Will we land now?" asked Splendid.

"No" said Toothy, "the plan is stay airborne at least until we reach the Animal City, and then – " but at that moment the "incoming call" signal sounded on Toothy's office communicator. He went to his desk, touched the switch, and immediately the holograms of the rest of the Council filled the room.

"We have successfully terminated the speed function and brought the city to a full stop" said Robot.

"Good" said the Mayor, "what is our next move?"

"I suggest we continue east" said Robot, "but at minimal speed. We should not use the full thrust unless absolutely necessary."

"It may be necessary again at some point" growled Virgil, "but for now, I agree. We could use a rest. We should remain in this location until tomorrow so we can get our bearings and plot the most efficient path east that we can."

"This might be a good chance to find out what these places used to be called" said Flippy to the Buddhist Monkey, "why don't you and I see what we can find out?" Buddhist Monkey nodded. He and Flippy left the office.

"Sniffles you should help them" said Toothy to the Sniffles' hologram. Sniffles nodded, terminated his connection, and disappeared from view.

The meeting ended shortly after that. Virgil and Robot said they were going to do a quick inspection of the city's flight equipment to make sure that the full thrust period had not damaged anything. Everyone else decided to take a rest, or eat a meal, or do whatever. Toothy declared that he was going up to the city roof to see the view. Barry decided to join him but Splendid declined, saying that he needed to wash the feel of battle out of his system.

"Better bring a coat" Toothy said to Barry, "it'll probably be very cold. That won't bother animals like me and Splendid, but it will bother a human like you." Barry nodded.

(To Be Continued)