From the Borowski household living room, Mae and Angus could only watch with anxiety as their two closest companions lay unconscious in harm's way on live TV, surrounded and unable to escape the metallic enemies that heavily guarded them.

Standing close by, Earl, Joy and Catalina also observed the knocked out alligator and fox onscreen and tried to understand everything they were seeing and hearing. All they knew was that one way or another, something more sinister was around the corner based on how the onscreen voice kept rambling about how the two animals would be his perfect generals once he was finished with them.

"Excuse me, who are those animals?", Earl asked in an attempt to get some answers. "My friend", "My boyfriend", Mae and Angus simultaneously answered without taking their eyes off the television. The camera then zoomed back as the masked figure started to brag about all the conquering he`d done so far in all the other destroyed worlds, saying that within twenty-four hours the displayed results he`d already gotten would grow exponentially.

The moment everyone saw the shot, the humans ended up getting as equally horrified as the two animals. What they witnessed on an apartment rooftop were the many frozen victims of Possum Springs and several other worlds amid the guard drones. Mae ended up nearly fainting when she saw her frozen parents were on display right next to Woola and Roses love interest Michael. Catalina shivered with fear while Joy and Earl let out a scream when they saw Dodge and Earl Jr. were in the shot of the captured from conquered worlds, the look of still horror on their faces being the nightmare fuel of nightmare fuel.

The camera then started to zoom back to focus on Gregg and Bea as the voice said, "Since the two I was looking for came in this world, I`ve decided to give everyone a special treat: I won`t use one of my dimension erasers on your field of existence. Instead, the ones who were lucky enough to evade my drones until this point will be left behind in a husk of what was once a proud life, forgotten and destroyed with no possible hope of recovery. I hope I`ve given each and every one of you an experience that will stay active in your minds until your natural deaths. The crowning achievements of my plans were your…."

Angus managed to snap out of the shocked trance first and exclaimed, "They`re still there. Bea`s apartment. Everyone is on the rooftop of that apartment down the street", upon recalling the familiar details of the background and noting the last place he saw his boyfriend. This made everyone look at each other with ambiguity in their emotions.

Earl narrating: "When the five of us first came together, distrust and fear were what ruled us over. We all didn`t know anything about the ones who were from another world and didn`t know what their full intentions were. However, after seeing an enemy put lives everyone cared about in harm's way, the five of us found common ground and managed to unite for a cause."

Scene shown: As the humans and anthro animals look at each other, any faint hostility and distrust formed during the previous fight is seen dissolving in their expressions. A new sense of confidence and trust takes over. A smash cut of the five walking down Maple Street is shown next. As Nickelbacks song "Edge of a Revolution" plays in the background, Mae swings her bat she has at hand and easily takes out a drone while her armed allies walk alongside her also dispatching any enemy in between them and the apartment.

The apartment came into view as the new team walked up the street, determined to get to the rooftop and free their captured loved ones. Never before had any of them felt more powerful in their lives as they took down one foe after another and got closer to the building. However, the euphoria within the five quickly dissolved when they noticed all the drones they were facing ahead of them (as well as everywhere else) started to disappear before they could get to them. Nearly dropping the chair she took from the Borowski`s kitchen to use as a melee weapon, Joy exclaimed, "What the hell is going on?", before looking up towards the apartments rooftop.

To her and everyone else`s alarm, the frozen victims of the current and previous worlds all started to rise into the sky and vanish once again. Bringing up the rear were Bea and Gregg, who were each picked up by the last two remaining drones in the world and lifted upward, disappearing from their reality in the blink of an eye.

In the few moments that followed, the five stood still in the empty and quiet ruins of what was once a functioning small town. Mae then broke the silence by letting out a despaired cry of grief. "No! We lost! My parents! Bea! Gregg! Everyone! We`re going to die!", she shrieked before dropping her bat and nervously hugging Angus, crying her eyes out.

Angus didn`t take his eyes off the last spot where he saw Gregg. "No. We can`t lose. There`s something we must be able to do", he said, struggling to come up with a way to go after the abductors and save his boyfriend, even though he knew through his panic it seemed and felt next to impossible.

Catalina could only shake her head in sorrow and looked around the town, taking in the bitter aftermath and destruction. She asked Earl and Joy what they should do now that they were probably stuck here forever as her two companions did their best not to panic amid their frustration of failing to save their kids again. "Well, with almost nobody around we could start a new life. Everything fancy would be free at least. Could use a hot tub that won`t give me an infected toe and another slushy machine. Plus, Darnell will have an easier time finding me here if he`s here. I know he will", Joy tried to say optimistically, not wanting to face the reality of everything that happened to her any more.

"Come on everyone! We can`t just throw in the towel now. One of us must have a plan or idea on how to go after those drones. If me and my two companions managed to go from our world to this one, there could still be a way to travel to another place again somehow. Maybe if we got ahold of a drone, we can study it or something. Find out how it teleports", Earl exclaimed after taking a few deep breathes to calm himself, prompting everyone to glance back at the trail of destroyed drones that remained from the groups warpath.

Upon seeing how smashed the machinery within a lot of the abandoned drones were, the short round of optimism started to dwindle with the worry there could be nothing intact enough to use.

At this point, Mae stopped crying and noted the laptop carrier full of drone pieces Angus had over his shoulder. It had been on him during the whole ordeal without falling off. "Angus, you still have all the pieces you collected at the Party Barn, right?", she asked in surprise. "What? Oh, yes. I guess I do. Almost forgot about it", Angus replied taking the carrier off his shoulder, half his mind elsewhere for a few moments.

"Wait a second. What are you thinking Mae?", Joy asked, noticing the feline look like she was onto an idea. "When we first ran into those invaders, Angus ended up collecting the pieces from a drone that are mostly intact. Maybe those pieces are part of the teleporter technology within", Mae answered, starting to feel some hope return. "It`s not a guarantee, but I think I collected most of its mainframe to work with. You know, the center process unit and primary memory of a computer or machine", Angus said when he noted the three humans looked like they didn`t understand a word he was saying.

Deciding to carry on the topic rather than dwell on something he still didn`t understand, Earl asked Angus if he could possibly put the pieces together to make the device work. "I don`t know. I mean, I`ve taken apart and put together watches, computers and even a TV set once. But a drone mainframe? I`m in new territory working on this", Angus nervously replied, worried what dangers lay within working on the unknown device as well as possibly only having one shot to get it right. "Angus! You have to try for Greggs sake along with everyone who got captured. If we have a working drone engine, maybe we can use it to teleport wherever they were all taken", Mae exclaimed, with the humans chorusing their agreement.

As hope between everyone started to feel renewed once Angus said he`d give it a try, Joy suddenly realized another problem. "Hold on a dang minute. How do we even know where those invaders and abductors went exactly? Far as we know, having a working engine/teleporter/thingamajig is useless if we end up jumping to the wrong dimension. Could end up in an alternate reality where I was never sexy to begin with or one where we could all grow more heads from something off in the atmosphere", she exclaimed, making everyone ponder.

Looking towards the apartment, Catalina started walking towards it, saying only that she had a hunch. Curious, her four companions followed her into the building's lobby, which looked like it went through a really destructive riot. As they all took in the heavy damage, Catalina looked up towards the ceiling and exclaimed, "A-ha! I think we may figure out where everyone was taken to", "What do you mean by that?", Earl asked before looking up and spotting the security camera his friend had seen first.

"That camera is working and if we`re lucky so is every other one in the building. Maybe one of the drones or that voice spoke on film and said where they were going once they finished ransacking this place", Catalina explained. "Good idea. Could be our best chance at finding a clue. How did you come up with the idea so fast?", Angus asked as everyone started looking for the security room. "Saw some characters on a few TV shows and movies use that idea when I took hour long breaks from cleaning motel room. It always seemed like a critical plot point from what I could gather", Catalina exclaimed before Joy shouted that she found the room off to the side, which was slightly trashed but still functioning.

When everyone approached the guard station monitors, they noted that while the recording system was still on and alright, some of the controls were ruined thanks to a coffee spill. After poking around, Earl ended up finding a storage DVD that was collecting all the footage from every hallway and removed it carefully from the main computer.

"I can play this at me and Greggs place on our television. It should be safer for us to be there just in case anything dangerous is still lingering around here. Plus, I`ll have a familiar environment to work on that drone engine", Angus stated as he took the DVD. "Sounds like a good idea", Mae said. "Hey, if she says it`s good, I`m convinced", Catalina added before everyone left the room and the apartment quickly.

"Mae, this bears place as safe as he says it is?", Joy asked the feline outside as her friend lead the way down the street. "Of course it is. Last time I needed a safe place from danger, the apartment ended up being the familiar and right call", Mae replied before realizing she told someone a bit too much about the dark secret she and her friends shared. Earl noted Mae and Angus` reaction and asked what they meant by "last time". "It was nothing", Angus only replied, his tone making it clear he wasn`t going to talk about it. Feeling it wouldn`t be worth the trouble, Earl let his curiosity leave him and focused all his thoughts on finding out where he would have to travel next alongside everyone else.

[3 hours later]

Joy, Earl and Mae sat on top of the apartment stairwell section that was on Gregg and Angus` floor with a pile of lightbulbs next to them. Simultaneously, the females picked one up and flung them down the steps with all their vigor. Joy`s lightbulb shattered on the 8th step while Mae`s shattered on the 11th, adding to the huge pile of broken glass below.

"Yes! That`s my third round won in a row. I`m ahead six points!", Mae cheered while Joy muttered under her breathe how embarrassed she was that she was losing to a cat and that she was lucky none of the ladies from the hair salon were here to gossip about this.

As the duo each selected another lightbulb, Earl stood up and looked into the hallway towards Angus and Greggs place. "Are you sure Angus` landlord won`t be mad at us when he sees how much damage we did? I`d hate to get him in trouble for this", he asked Mae. "Don`t think that`s a problem. It`s just the five of us alone in this world probably", Mae replied sadly before she and Joy flung their next lightbulbs as far as they could. This time, Joy ended up winning the round. "Oh yeah, 16-13. I`m catching up on ya", Joy taunted. "Cheater! You didn`t have that many points. I`ve been keeping track", Mae accused, making some conflict arise.

As the two verbally quarreled and threw childish insults at each other, Earl sighed and thought back on the recent events as he leaned against the doorway.

(An instrumental version of NITW`s song "Die Anywhere Else" plays over the montage)

Earl narrating: "After we`d made it to Angus` place and hunkered down in his apartment, everyone had gotten started on the engine reconstruction and the surveillance disc. Since Angus was the expert in robot biology or whatever the subject was called, he worked on the machine alone while the rest of us started going through many hours of the footage in fast forward mode."

Scene shown: The story goes back in time and shows the group of five enter the apartment with the humans looking around for a few moments in wonder (mainly due to how nice the place is compared to their homes in Camden). Angus immediately enters his room and puts the drone parts on his desk while Mae approaches the DVD player with the disc she got earlier from her friend outside. She puts it in, bringing up several camera angle options to go over. Mae then sits down on the couch with the humans joining her and picks up the nearby remote. From there, she picks the camera feed recovered from the lobby and presses a button to speed up footage from a week ago. After a few moments, Joy stands up and approaches the kitchen, feeling it`ll be a long task and that a snack would help make the waiting periods easier.

Earl narrating: "After Joy caused an incident that involved the stove nearly exploding, Angus suggested she step out and clear her head for his and everyone's sake. Not wanting to have her alone in a strange world, I ended up accompanying her. About a minute later, Mae joined us in the hallway, saying that Catalina would take over the video investigation while she took a break to deal with some stress she was feeling."

Scene shown: The scene jumps forward to the Joy getting pushed out of the apartment with smoke notable in the background. As she turns around to argue with a pissed off Angus, Earl steps in between them and says something to the bear that calms him down before he closes the door. A minute forward shows the two humans lingering the hallway when the door opens again. A stressed Mae steps out in the hallway and closes the door behind her, glancing up uneasily at the two humans.

Earl narrating: "As the three of us wondered what to do next, Mae ended up with an idea that involved lightbulbs and a game she once played with Gregg in her youth. Next thing I knew, I was watching her and Joy collect those lightbulbs all over the building."

Scene shown: The scene cuts from the trio in the hallway to Mae opening a janitors closet and collecting several bulbs from the top shelf in a box with Joys help while Earl looks on. Mae then spots another bulb in a corner and grabs it, only to be electrocuted. To Earl and Joys surprise, she shakes it off as if it were nothing before closing the door.

Earl narrating: "And during the quest to find more lightbulbs, me and Joy got to know more about the feline while she got to know more about us. She told us about one of her friend's pet possum named Rabbies while I told her about my karma list".

Scene shown: The scene transitions from the hallway to Joy standing on her tiptoes atop a coffee table in an open apartment, trying to unscrew a lightbulb that`s a bit out of reach. As she does, Earl is showing Mae his karma list and explaining the origins behind it while the duo watch Joys efforts at the doorway.

"So you`re trying to undo all the bad things you ever did in your life?", Mae asked curiously as she read over Earls list. "Yep. Do good things, good things happened to you. Do bad things, bad things happened to you", Earl said before folding the list and putting it back in his pocket.

"I`ll admit that is impressive, though I still find the story of how Germ met his pet to be the superior one. No offense", Mae said. "Ha! Must feel like an idiot for bragging about that dumb list of yours if a story about a stupid vermin critter can do better", Joy taunted. Suddenly, she accidently leaned forward a bit on the table and fell flat on her face, moaning in pain. As Mae stared in disbelief, Earl shrugged and casually told Mae, "Whatdya know, karma", as his ex-wife slowly got up looking irritated.

Earl narrating: "And as we collected the final lightbulbs necessary to start the game at the stairwell, Catalina and Angus got to bond a bit as well over their professions".

Scene shown: The scene transitions from Joy to Angus and Catalina in the apartment, with Angus making progress putting his drone pieces back together while Catalina keeps going over the footage, still not finding anything useful.

Catalina found herself letting out a frustrated groan, prompting Angus to lean out of his bedroom for a moment to check on her. "You holding up okay?", he asked. "Yeah. Just a bit tired. I wish Mae and Earl were back here to help", Catalina replied.

"Knowing Mae, she`s dragging your friends into something crazy and a little illegal but mostly harmless, I think. It might be for the best to let them have fun anyways, considering we`re definitely up for some stressful times. I`m more than halfway done assembling our ticket to the next world", Angus explained.

"You might be onto something. Plus, studying video footage for anything important does remind me of my old job when I worked at this place called Chubby`s a bit. Ended up doing some really shady stuff to get by. Speaking of work, what do you do for a living anyway Angus?", Catalina asked as she returned her focus to the TV and fast forwarded another section of recording.

"I work at this video rental store. Has a lot of nice horror films I like to watch along with a few other things from the other genera`s. Don`t tell Gregg this if you meet him: one of my wildest fantasies is to take every movie I loathe in that store and put it in a pile and burn it to a crisp. If I ever see another bad rom-com movie soon after all this, I`d go nuts", Angus replied, making Catalina smile at that for a moment. Before the duo fully returned to their work.

Earl narrating: "At this point, it felt like the time spent outside the apartment had been long enough. As Mae and Joy stayed back to settle their score differences, I headed back to see if any progress had been reached."

Scene shown: The story cuts back to Earl as he`s shown walking down the hallway to the apartment with Joy and Mae still bickering behind him. He ends up reaching the door and raises a fist to knock. To his surprise, Catalina opens it at the last second looking excited.

"Earl! I`m so glad you came!", Catalina exclaimed, a hint of dread in her voice. "Did you find something on the footage?", Earl guessed, knowing what the answer already was before Catalina nodded. Looking towards the stairwell, Earl shouted for Joy and Mae to come over, with Mae replying that she and Joy were doing a quick "tie breaker" round to see who was the ultimate winner.

The sound of two lightbulbs breaking were heard followed by Mae cheering and Joy whining. "Yes! Yes! I`m the lightbulb thrower master! I`m like a queen of it or something!", Mae exclaimed running down the hallway with Joy following her bitterly. "Too bad you didn`t swallow any glass", she exclaimed. "Too bad you didn`t fall down the stairs onto that big pile of glass", Mae replied, making Joy look shocked and confused as to why the cat would answer like that so jovially.

The trio entered the apartment and found Angus in the living room looking apprehensively at the TV. The minute Mae saw a paused scene that had Bea and Gregg on it in front of the Santellos apartment, all her excitement faded and the worry she previously had came back to her. "Catalina, what did you find exactly? Bea and Gregg didn`t get seriously hurt before they were knocked out, were they?", Mae asked, feeling guilty she let something critically important slip her mind so long just to blow off some steam.

"Not exactly, but I didn`t see everything on the broadcast. Do you or Angus need a minute before we all watch?", Catalina responded as she picked up the remote again. "No. We can`t waste any time. I want to know what happened", Angus replied, trying not to make his voice quiver. "Same here", Mae replied, not taking her eyes off the screen as she sat down on the couch again. Earl and Joy both gave a nod when Catalina glanced at them for an answer. With everyone now onboard and without stalling for a second, she raised the remote towards the TV and hit play, ready for a haunting viewing of Bea and Greggs last minutes of freedom.