Third of three chapters for today.

As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. In addition the character of Fresko the Feline belongs to Deviant Art user Yoshi Lord. I own only my own characters and this story.

Now here's chapter 43:

43 – P.O.W.S

When the cleaning up was done all of the troops returned to the Animal City where they were greeted with a quiet welcome. Although there were some celebrations held to mark the victory everyone knew that it was really only one more battle and the main war was not over. There was also an official ceremony held to commemorate and honor the animals who had died in the battle, and that provided some small comfort to their families.

The next order of business was to deal with the prisoners. Although the captured Marauders were being held temporarily in custody the Animal City was not prepared to house a large number of human prisoners and it was clear that something would have to be done. Handy met with the Mole and Loco to discuss their options.

"We can't just release them" said Handy.

"No" said the Mole, "obviously not. We can't send them back to XL-Jack-3 either."

"Building a place to house them would take too long" said Handy, "and even if we did that we'd still have to take care of them, which ultimately would be a drain on our resources."

"We could dispose of them" said Loco.

"No!" said Handy strongly, "we're not savages!" Loco bowed his head in agreement.

"I know" he said, "but someone had to say it for the record."

"Consider it said" replied the Mole, "exactly how many prisoners are there?"

"About a thousand" said Loco.

"Well maybe our allies at Metramegopolis can take them off of our hands" said the Mole, "they have a POW camp there."

"Hmm" said Handy thoughfully, "let me talk to Toothy about it."

It was soon arranged. Toothy called a meeting of the Council and it quickly approved a motion to take the prisoners from the Animal City. Tony Ride declared that he would have each prisoner interrogated, just in case one of them could tell him something worth knowing. The Mole agreed to arrange for a mass transport of all of the prisoners at once to a specific location in the flying city where they could be quickly taken into custody and incarcerated. The transport would be by teleport, but for such a big transport they would need a definite location fix at each end of the journey. It would be necessary to set up a temporary receiver station at Metramegopolis so all of the prisoners could be safely sent there. When he heard about the decision Fresko asked Loco if he could take on that job.

"I could use the change" Fresko said, "and I wouldn't mind seeing some old friends."

"Well" said Loco, "we seem to be safe enough for the moment so I'll let you do this, but I might have to summon you back at a moment's notice so take your personal teleporter."

"Right. How soon shall I go?"

"The Mole will have the equipment ready for you in two days. You can go then. Before that I intend to settle another matter, about which I might also need you to carry word to Toothy."

Fresko nodded. He knew that Loco was referring to Lifty and Shifty. As soon as Loco dismissed Fresko he contacted the Mole and the two of them decided that it was time to deal with the raccoon brothers.

(To Be Continued)