Paul, Willy, MJ, and François were building sandcastles at Wetbark Lake. They were having a good and relaxing time until Mikey showed up on his bike. Mikey drove so fast he nearly ran into the sandcastles! He thankfully stopped just inches from them. The furious look on his face sent chills down their spines.

"Why didn't you tell me you ran into Marius?!" he yelled. Paul, MJ, and François knew what Mikey ment while Willy didn't. "What?" he asked. "Not you, I'm talking to the other 3 here!" Mikey said, "Why didn't you guys tell me you ran into Marius?!" Pip ran from behind exhausted. "My apologies, I told him by accident," he said. "Look Mikey, we're sorry but we just didn't want you to get upset," MJ said. "Well I am upset!" shouted Mikey, "You let that tyrant get away and who knows if he will strike again! The guy is guilty as sin, in fact he is sin!" Mikey took a few deep breaths then finally calmed down. "I'm sorry," he sighed, "It's just I've heard many bad things about Cromwell. My dad and him have a long and history. I think I need to go play some video games at the bowling alley to blow off some steam for a bit and try to forget what happened."

Mikey drove off leaving Pip, Paul, MJ, and François terrible for Mikey. Willy was still confused mainly due to the fact he wasn't with the others at the time of when they met Marius. Harvey, Fee, and Foo watched from a distance and wanted to know what happened. They asked the boys who gave them a brief summary of what went down months prior. Harvey, Fee, and Foo were in a loss of words.

Meanwhile...

Marius was on call with his voice changer, he was talking with Otto the leader of the Wild Cherrys at his house. "You bafoons!" Marius yelled, "It was seriously that hard to take out that Raccoon?!" "He had a gang or somethin waitin for us!" Otto yelled back, "Don't blame us, just be happy we decided to do your dirty work while you sat back and got lazy!" This infuriated Marius which caused him to punch his desk. "Well you know the deal pal! You get nothing in return!" Marius growled. "I'll get you for this!" Otto shouted, "I'll find out who this is and tear you to pieces!"

He hung up before Marius could say anything else. Marius put down the phone and put his head on his desk. "Moff is gonna be indefinitely angry with me when he finds out what happened," he groaned.

Not even 30 seconds later, Moff called him. He picked up the phone sighing. "This better not be what I think it's about," He grunted. "Well I'm pretty sure it is!" Moff said in an angry tone, "You and I seriously need to have a talk! Come to my place right now!" Marius sighed feeling extremely annoyed.

Harvey and Fee talked about what the others told them. "Surely it wasn't Mayor Cromwell!" Harvey said, "He seems like such a great mayor! How could he be a bad guy?" "I don't know dude," Fee replied, "But those guys looked pretty serious about this Cromwell fella being bad. We gotta find someone who really knows Cromwell in order to determine what he is really about." Harvey tried to think of somebody then realized who would know Cromwell the most. "Wait a minute, didn't they say Mikey knew him well?" he asked. "They said his dad knew the dude well," Fee said, "Whatever the case, we gotta find Mikey to know the truth."

Fee then called to Foo who was in his room. "Foo! Come on, we're going to find Mikey," she said. Foo opened the door and came out in his underwear which was blue and had little stars and rocket ships on them. "Yeah let's go!" he said. Harvey covered his eyes. "Your clothes please," he said. "Just be glad he isn't naked again," Fee said to Harvey. Foo went back in his room and got on his clothing. "This better?" he asked. "Much," Harvey replied.

As they heard what Mikey said earlier, he'd be at the bowling alley playing some arcade games to blow off some steam. So they went to the arcade area of the bowling alley in which they found Mikey playing an old school game. "Guess he wasn't kidding," Fee said, "At least we knew where he was headed." They walked up to Mikey who noticed them. "Hey Harvey," he said, "What are you and the twins doing here?" "Hey Mikey, we thought we'd stop by to ask you a few questions," Harvey replied, "I know you might not like to talk about this subject but we couldn't help but notice you were very upset about this and just wanna know the truth. Is it true that Mayor Cromwell is a bad guy?"

Harvey noticed Mikey looking a bit nervous as he lost the round on the game he was playing. "You okay dude?" Fee asked. Mikey didn't respond, he just put in a quarter and continued playing the game. Foo stepped back slowly. "I'm gonna get us some nachos from the snack bar," he said as he slowly walked backwards away. Mikey took a deep breath and finally acknowledged them. "I guess you were around Wetbark Lake at the time and heard me, didn't you?" he asked. Fee and Harvey nodded. "I should've known but I guess I was too upset to notice you guys," Mikey sighed but explained nonetheless, "Truth is though, Cromwell is a very bad guy. Him and my dad have a long history that dates back to before I was even born." "What kind of stuff?" asked Harvey. "Framing, just to name one of them," Mikey said, "Another thing to add is how he came to Littlebark. Something I found really strange was the fact that he is longtime friends with Moff! In fact, in one of Cromwell's speeches, he said that he is gonna be including Moff to help make Littlebark a better place or something like that."

Harvey was deep in thought, trying to piece together what that ment. He then thought of his experience in the Steampunks world, especially with Moff going full dictator mode on everyone. Harvey then whispered, "Steamgate..." "What?" asked Fee. Then Foo came over with a huge plate of Nachos. "Nachos anyone?" Foo smiled. Mikey then won the game. "Woohoo!" he cheered then looked back at Harvey and the twins, "You wanna know more about Cromwell? Come to my house, my dad will tell you the tale. It's probably not best to talk about it here in public."

Meanwhile...

Marius arrived to Moff's as he entered. "You weren't followed, were you?" asked Moff. "I don't think," Marius replied. "Good!" Moff growled as he shut the door, "How about you calm down a bit while your at it! If you keep making idiot moves and wanting to destroy everything you look at, chances are you and I will end up being behind bars for goodness knows how long!" They soon entered the living room. "I'm an idiot, I move," Marius said sarcastically as he moved like a robot. "Take a seat, will you?!" Moff shouted. Marius sat down on one of Moff's couches. "You do know the whole thing about the Wild Cherrys was your idea from the start right?" he asked, "So why are you taking out your anger on me?" "Sorry, did I forget to mention that this is the second time you have screwed up?!" Moff yelled, "You tried taking down Ms. Kennedy and you failed! You tried taking down Randl and you failed!" "Hold on, my second failure was not my fault!" said Marius, "The first time was indeed my fault, but the second time was your doing! You considered the plan and I gave you ideas so I wouldn't get us caught! Is this seriously how you treat your friend after years of being away from you?! Don't you want to change Littlebark? Don't you want us to get rid of those degenerates? Don't you want Irving back?"

Moff sighed, "Sorry Marius, things have been rather difficult lately." "I can tell," Marius said in an insulting manner, "Maybe WE should calm down you mean?" "Yes, WE should calm down," Moff replied, "Question is though, what should we do now? Otto wants to track your number down, folks are much smarter than we thought, and we are still low on getting Steamgate up and running!" Marius then remembered something he wanted to do, "How about this, I'll take care of the degenerates who are a true threat to us while you take care of the funding and getting Steamgate up and running!" "Wait, didn't you literally just try that and it failed miserably?" asked Moff. "No, your not listening," Marius explained, "As far as businesses go, we'll worry about them later. The kids of Littlebark Grove seem to be the true threats we need to worry about. They're smart and I know that from experience, especially from that one fox named Jake or something like that! I'm still curious to know what that Harvey kid is all about from what you tell me. Regardless though, leave those kids to me. I'll deal with them and if they try to take me down, I'll have a bit of fun with them!" He then smirked creepily and giggled a little. Moff was a little unsure what to think but decided to let Marius do his thing.

Harvey, Fee, and Foo went with Mikey to his house. James and Betty wondered why Mikey had them over. Mikey told them what happened and that his friends were curious to know the truth of Cromwell. James wasn't too sure, especially since he has never told anyone the reasoning why he didn't like Cromwell other than his wife and son.

"I don't know if I should tell them," said James nervously. "Don't worry dad," Mikey explained, "They won't tell anyone if you don't want them to. You can trust them, especially Harvey." James was hesitant on telling Harvey and the twins but knew that Cromwell could possibly lead them down a bad path if he didn't tell them the truth about him. Therefore, made up his mind and decided to go tell them.

James, Betty, and Mikey went into the living room where Harvey, Fee, and Foo were. "So, you want to know the truth about Cromwell?" asked Betty. Harvey and Fee nodded, so did Foo who was eating the nachos.

(FLASHBACK)

Littlebark Grove, 1994

Littlebark Grove was a bit different back then. It wasn't very big in terms of activities but had a decent amount of things to do at the time. At this time, James worked with Marius at the newly built Club Mulch. They were both bartenders who mainly worked during the night. The two had been good friends for a while and things only seemed to look up.

"At least this is something I can do to pay for my time at Littlebark College," Marius said. "What are you studying for?" asked James. "Science," he replied, "It's something I have been greatly interested in. I want to learn and discover things beyond our universe."

Marius had come from the UK to Littlebark College to study on many forms of science according to him. He and James had a very positive friendship and would often hang out after their shifts were over. Although things looked positive, it would take a nasty turn the following year.

Littlebark Grove, 1995

James began to notice that Marius was often absent from work. Not only did it seem very odd to why he'd be often out of work but whenever he and James would hang out again, Marius seemed to have a very moody attitude. James knew something wasn't right and thought he'd see what it was.

One night after Club Mulch closed, James and Marius talked. "Has everything been alright Marius?" asked James, "I don't want to sound rude or anything like that but I have noticed a change in your attitude lately." "What? Surely your kidding," Marius said. "No, I'm serious," James told Marius, "You have been absent from work, you've been giving me attitude, and I have been rarely seeing you. Has everything been alright?" "Don't worry, everything has been alright," Marius assured as he walked to his car. When he opened the driver door, a book fell out and showed the pages. James couldn't fully recall what he saw but what he did see a drawing of some sort of entrance. "Whoops," Marius said as he threw the book back into his car and drove off leaving James feeling a bit uneasy.

The next day, James woke up to the cops knocking on his door. "What's going on?" he asked. "James Swampton, your coming with us!" one of the officers said to him. James was sent in for questioning in which he didn't know what any of the officers were talking about. The officers got a TV and played some footage taken from a security camera of a frog who looked similar to him breaking into an ATM in the middle of the night. James was absolutely shocked, "I swear, that wasn't me! I wouldn't do such a thing!" "Don't worry, we aren't blaming you," said an officer, "It's just you match the description of who robbed this ATM." James told the officers what had happened last night and although he does take the same road the ATM was on to get home, he never stopped by it.

Some trials were held a few weeks later to determine if James was guilty or not guilty. Thankfully, James was not guilty due to a lack of evidence. Not long after, they found the one who broke into the ATM and put him in prison.

Although James was grateful to be found not guilty, he believed that Marius Cromwell himself had reported him to the police. The reasoning why was because it turns out that someone had reported James the night of the ATM robbery. James didn't see anyone when he went home for the night which made it practically impossible for someone to report him. To add to that, the frog who was caught had some form of a British accent which made it a contributing factor. To put it frankly, James believed that due to him seeing Marius's book by accident, Marius thought he'd get James in trouble in case he decided to report him. Unfortunately though, Marius had left Littlebark to move back to the UK before James would exchange words with him.

(END OF FLASHBACK)

"Woah," Fee said in disbelief. "That's awful," Harvey said feeling bad for James. "It sure was," said James, "I never understood why his attitude changed but little did I know that he'd come back to Littlebark for reasons I wish I knew." "What can we do help you guys?" asked Foo. "Warn your friends about Cromwell," James replied, "Just don't tell the adults, I've tried to in the past but they never believed me. The only ones who ever believed me other than you three were my wife and Mikey."

"Don't worry dude," Fee said, "We'll make sure this Cromwell fella doesn't try any funny business on anyone!" "Thanks for your time Mikey and Mr. and Mrs. Swampton," Harvey said. "No problem," Betty said, "All we ask is for you three to please stay safe out there." "Before we go, you want my remaining nachos?" asked Foo to the Swampton's. "No thanks," Mikey replied. "Okay then, bye Mikey," Foo said as he, Fee, and Harvey left. "Wait, were those the twins you didn't like?" asked Betty. "Yeah, at the time when I didn't like them," Mikey said, "Nowadays, they don't seem that bad after all."

Betty and James Swampton belong to Justine Navarro (DenouncingWhalesofVenice)

THE END!