"Um... H-Hey, Mom... What a surprise..." Lil smiled nervously.
"Yeah... What brings you here?" Phil added.
"And what am I doing here instead of at The Java Lava and you aren't in school right now?" Betty asked suspiciously before smirking and crossing her arms at them.
Phil and Lil just gulped in response as this looked a little bad for them.
"Mrs. DeVille, it's my fault," Mike decided to speak up as she stepped over to defend the twins. "Don't blame them, but I was the one who brought Lil here, though I have no idea why Phil's even here or how he got here so fast without taking the bus. Sure, wolves are fast, but they're not THAT fast."
"None of your business how I got here so fast, 'Mastinky'!" Phil glared.
"Oh, real clever..." Mike rolled her eyes. "Real mature, Phil."
"Okay, that's enough," Betty said before a fight could break out. "We all need to talk, one way or another."
"Are you gonna call Principal Wartz?" Lil asked nervously.
"Even if he's not the smartest guy around." Phil mumbled a bit.
"No doubt about that," Mike rolled her eyes. "Such as when Harold, Sid, and Stinky clearly mooned him and somehow Arnold got in trouble for it."
"Seriously! How stupid can you get?" Phil added in response to that.
"No, I won't call Principal Wartz," Betty then said to soothe them. "We're going to have a different kind of talk."
"Oh?" Mike, Phil, and Lil then asked.
"Yes... Come on, let's go downstairs," Betty nodded as she came out of her daughter's room. "We're also going to have company pretty soon."
"Company?" Phil and Lil asked.
"I made a special phone call," Betty explained on the way to the living room. "But we'll worry about that when the time comes."
The three teenagers looked at each other and soon followed Betty down into the living room to have a personal talk.
"So Mike... I know I don't know you that well, but I can tell that something's been on your mind lately." Betty said as she stood across from the teenagers as they sat on the couch.
"Uh... Yeah... A bit," Mike nodded. "What do you mean though?"
"You've been having special dreams," Betty explained. "Dreams that other people hadn't seen before... Including those of lions."
Mike looked wide-eyed before she nodded again as that was true.
"Well, it's actually a funny story... I know about those dreams." Betty then said.
"What?!" Mike, Phil, and Lil then asked in shock.
"Mom... Are you a Dream Walker or something?" Phil asked.
"No, no, that's not how I know," Betty chuckled before she looked serious again. "Now... I know you two don't know much about my side of the family."
"Aside from Uncle Freddie." Phil spoke up.
"Not to mention those snobs Hedley and Smedley." Lil added before she rolled her eyes about their obnoxious cousins from London.
"Who are Hedley and Smedley?" Mike asked the DeVille twins.
"Don't ask." Phil and Lil told her and scoffed a bit.
Mike just blinked before shrugging.
"Well... Freddie and I weren't the only kids in our family," Betty began to explain. "Your Uncle Freddie and I had a sister."
"What?!" Phil and Lil gasped.
"Yes... She was older than Freddie and of course, that makes me the youngest." Betty then said.
"Heh... Small world, huh?" Mike chuckled since she was the youngest as well with an older brother and sister too.
"You're telling me, Mike." Betty smirked.
"...Did we ever meet her?" Phil asked. "Like... When we were rugrats?"
"Rugrats?" Betty asked then.
"Great. Now you got me doing it." Phil complained to Mike.
"Sorry." Mike smirked.
"No... No one's met her besides us two and of course our parents," Betty explained. "It started a very long time ago in Africa."
"Africa?" The kids repeated.
Mike felt a bit stunned since she knew quite a bit about Africa these days, especially because of her misadventures with Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa, Jana, Jungle Boy, and eventually even Eliza Thornberry.
"You see, kids, we were all born in Africa," Betty then explained. "I know it's weird to think about, especially since my family comes from England, like my cousin Winifred and her husband Sir Cedric."
"And Hedley and Smedley." Phil and Lil mumbled to that.
"Yes, and even Hedley and Smedley," Betty nodded as she continued. "Your aunt was born... Mine and Freddie's sister... Giselle, and eventually, your Uncle Freddie came next, and then I came after them. We were with our mother who looked after us, but of course, she was no ordinary mother."
"Was she a wolf too?" Mike asked as she raised her hand.
"Yes, but only once a month which I'm sure you can all understand, but eventually the wolf gene withers away with old age, but the sense of smell and hearing stays strong," Betty nodded. "We were with our mother and we were all very happy together. We never knew our father though unfortunately... I guess he could be anybody though."
Mike, Phil, and Lil winced slightly, but they kept listening to Betty's story.
"Point is, a while later, it was time for us to learn how to hunt and take care of ourselves once we got a bit older," Betty then continued. "Then... Something happened, but I can't really remember... We were all very happy together one day and... One day, Freddie and Giselle just started fighting."
"What were they fighting about?" Lil asked.
"I don't know, I'm not even sure to this day," Betty said softly. "Every time I wanted to help or see what was going on, they just brushed me aside and told me not to worry about it. Eventually, Giselle was screaming one night and she decided to leave. Uncle Freddie told me that Giselle was going to be going away for a little while and told me to go to bed."
"But you didn't, right?" Mike guessed.
"No, I didn't..." Betty shook her head. "I pretended to be asleep and waited until my mother and brother were both asleep and I tried to sneak out. I left our home and went to see what was going on and tracked down my sister's scent... I saw her with a lion I hadn't seen or met before, he seemed kinda familiar, but I wasn't sure. They were talking about something."
Mike then began to look curious as she wondered if she had seen that lion before or not, but decided not to interrupt.
"I tried to get a closer look, but then suddenly, Freddie found me and told me to go straight back home," Betty then said. "I was on my way back home before I saw what was going on and it looked like Giselle was yelling at Freddie again and the lion even tried to attack him. That's about all I remember and... Suddenly... I woke up and Mom told me that we had to leave Africa."
"Whoa..." Mike, Phil, and Lil muttered together.
"I didn't want to leave, especially my friends Bhati, a bat-eared fox and Daabi, an aardvark." Betty then said.
"Whoa... You were friends with a fox?" Mike asked, shocked, especially since she knew her brother Jamie and her former adoptive/foster mother Foxxy Love had a complicated relationship due to their species difference.
"You're darn tootin'!" Betty smirked and nodded. "She was a very sweet fox and I missed her and Daabi very much after we left Africa."
"So after that, you ended up in America?" Phil guessed.
"Mm-hmm," Betty nodded. "Mom thought it was best and we had to mostly take human form and try to keep our wolf sides under control, which was pretty hard some of the times, especially if someone gets us angry during the full moon approaching and not to mention the cravings that came with it."
"Been there." Mike and Lil both muttered.
Phil rolled his eyes at them before smirking since they said that at the same time.
"So... We changed our last name to 'Giselle', in honor of our lost sister who we haven't seen ever since then," Betty then said. "Which is why whenever you guys see family documents, my name says 'Elizabeth Giselle'."
"Ohh..." Phil and Lil then said, sounding amazed as they never knew they wanted to know where their mother's maiden name came from.
"So you just never heard from Giselle again after that?" Mike asked.
"Pretty much... I've had dreams about her, but I wasn't sure if they were just plain old dreams or visions," Betty explained before shrugging. "I can sense her closeness a bit though, especially in the dream I had last night that I meant to tell you pups about, but you were already in school before I could tell you. Something important did come through at least."
"Yeah?" Mike asked.
"What's that?" Phil added.
"Tell us, Mom." Lil said hopefully.
"It was a sign from Aniu," Betty replied. "The Great White Wolf of Alaska."
"Also Balto's mother." Mike whispered to herself knowingly.
"She and The Lion in the Moon were good friends in ancient times," Betty then said. "The Lion in the Moon was a lullaby of course for young animals in the jungle, but also a great celestial being much like Aniu."
"Whoa..." Mike whispered.
"Now, it's pretty late to get back to school, plus this is pretty much more important than your education," Betty said. "Mike, I can tell that The Pridelands meant a lot to you at one point in your life."
"Yes, indeed," Mike nodded. "Especially since I had a tough time before I ran away from home in Cartoon Network City until I found out that the Eds had missed me and wanted me to come home since I disappeared after our sleepover after Cartoon Cartoon Fridays that week."
"I don't blame ya... I don't know much about that Sarah Hill kid who made you run away, but I knew a lot of people just like her back in my day," Betty scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Sounds like the missing child of Jeremy and Pamela."
"Those are Sam's parents, right?" Mike asked Phil and Lil. "The goth girl Sam Manson, not that Puckett kid with the web show with Carly Shay or 'Squid' from The Rocket Power gang."
"Yeah." Phil nodded.
"Uh-huh." Lil added.
"Thought so," Mike then said. "Yeah, you'd think she was a long-lost princess or something... For a while I wasn't sure who was worse, her or Lu, who claimed to be The Island Princess when I first met her."
"So, Mom, what do we do now?" Phil asked.
"Simple..." Betty smiled. "Fall Break is coming up, so we'll just take a family vacation to Africa."
"Sounds like something the Thornberry family would do." Lil remarked.
"I'll just make a few calls and get us goin'," Betty replied. "I dunno about your father joining us though. You know how your dad gets." she then reminded her twin children.
Phil and Lil nodded as Howard was a bit of a coward and sort of spineless, especially compared to the rest of them.
"I'm so glad that you understand and I'm sorry about your sister, Betty," Mike then said. "She sounded important before she disappeared."
"Yes, she really was," Betty said softly. "Don't worry about it though. I hadn't though about it in years, but I'm glad I talked about it since no one had seen or heard of her since that incident."
Mike cracked a small smile as she did something rather helpful before groaning. "Aw, man..." she then said as she realized something.
"What's wrong, Mike?" Betty then asked in concern.
"What am I gonna tell Mr. Witt?" Mike then replied. "I'm supposed to meet him in the afternoons for Moody's Point rehearsals."
"Mr. Witt, huh?" Betty commented. "That name sounds familiar somehow..."
"Yep... Mr. Jonathan Witt," Mike nodded as she explained. "He's one of the best directors in Nickelodeon Studios."
"Jonathan Witt...?" Betty repeated as that name sounded familiar somehow before she thought about and then smirked with a light chuckle. "Tell ya what? Why don't I go down to Nickelodeon Studios and have a word with him for ya?"
"Betty, are you sure?" Mike then asked. "I mean... It might seem a bit intense. I try my best not to lose my temper over him even though he's really conceited."
"Don't worry 'bout that, Mike," Betty said as she smirked. "I'll take care of him for ya and we'll just spend the next couple of days getting ready for a trip to Africa to Proud Rock!"
"That's Pride Rock." Mike corrected.
"Oh. Sorry, my mistake." Betty then told the redheaded tomboy.
"Besides, how can a rock be proud?" Phil added. "It's a rock."
"It's called 'Pride' Rock because a pride is also known as a group of lions, Phillip." Lil glared in annoyance.
"What makes you smart about animals, Lillian?" Phil glared back.
"Guys, guys, we don't have time for that," Betty told her twins before smirking. "You have plenty of time to try to kill each other during our family vacation."
Phil and Lil just looked bashful as Betty chuckled to them.
"Well... I don't know what you'll do, but thanks, Betty," Mike said before giving a small smile. "I feel so much better now."
"Glad that I could help out," Betty reassured. "We're practically family nowadays."
"And even more than you think right now." Phil whispered with a smirk.
Lil then glared and shoved her brother right in the ribs.
"All right, I'll make my calls," Betty then said. "Phil, get out of your sister's room and start getting ready. You too, Lil. Don't worry about school today, it can be our little secret." she then winked at them.
"Okay, Mom!" Phil and Lil agreed eagerly even though they were technically skipping school.
"As for you, Mike, don't worry about a thing," Betty then said. "I dunno how this will work, but you can tell that King Mufasa that you'll be on your way to Pride Rock in no time."
"Thanks, Betty," Mike smiled a bit. "I like the sound of that."
"Great," Betty nodded as she soon left the room. "I'm glad that we had this talk."
"Yeah, me too." Mike agreed as she got ready to leave Lil's room along with Phil.
Lil followed them out to shut the door before she decided to shout out loud. "Philly loves Courtney Gripling!" she then called out before shutting her door rather quickly behind Mike and Phil.
"Hey! That wasn't cool!" Phil complained before he pounded on the door. "Lil, open the door so I can tear you limb from limb!"
"No, I don't think I will~" Lil smirked. "You have to stay out of my room and get ready for our trip."
"Ugh... Fine..." Phil groaned before he looked at Mike. "Be thankful you don't have a twin, Mazinsky. They can be the bane of your existence sometimes."
"I'll try to remember that the next time I think about being the youngest of three children." Mike then said with a shrug as she went her own separate way for now.
Phil just nodded and soon went into his bedroom while Lil decided to relax in her own room while Betty made her calls.
Mike then walked over into the DeVille backyard and did a little meditation to relax herself and unwind before the upcoming journey away from Nicktropolis. She took a few deep breaths and soon found herself going deep into her psyche and was in The Pridelands again and was met by a deep, ominous, and familiar voice.
"Mike... Mike!"
Mike opened her eyes as she looked over and found her surroundings before smiling at the former Lion King of Pride Rock. "Mufasa... So nice to see you," she then said to him. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm on my way to see Simba and Nala before we know it."
"I've heard..." Mufasa smiled back warmly at the tomboy. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm proud of you."
"You're proud of me?" Mike asked as she sounded touched by that statement.
"Indeed I am," Mufasa nodded. "You may not have been an official member of the pride, even as a wolf, but I still enjoyed your help and company, especially to young Simba about Scar and what he did just to take the throne to Pride Rock away from the family."
"That no-good jerk," Mike scoffed and glared. "I'd do anything just to see him again and give him worse than that scar that was on his face. You must really hate him."
"Not fully..." Mufasa said as he shook his head.
"Huh?" Mike then asked. "But... He killed you... And tried to kill me and Simba with the hyenas... Not to mention what he did to Sarabi when we came back to Pride Rock after help from Timon, Pumbaa, Jana, and Jungle Boy."
"Yes, I know what he did, but he's still my brother regardless," Mufasa advised. "I don't hate Scar, I just hate the things that he did because he's still apart of my family. I can see why you would hate him and I don't condone the things that he's done, but please try to understand my point of view as well."
"Well... Okay..." Mike shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat as we humans like to say."
"Indeed," Mufasa nodded before smiling. "I'm sure Simba and Nala will look forward to your visit since the last time you all saw each other."
"I know I do," Mike smiled back. "Simba always felt like another brother to me... Even if he was a pain in the butt most of the time when he was a cub."
"That's just how cubs are, Mike," Mufasa chuckled warmly. "You really should've seen some of the things that Scar and I did when we were cubs with Sarabi and our friends."
"Oh, yeah, like what?" Mike then asked, eagerly with a smirk.
Mufasa laughed and decided to pass the rest of their time together by trading stories about childhood, especially about a younger Scar who wasn't as evil or cruel as he was as a cub as he was as an adult.
Meanwhile, as they did that, Betty lived up to her promise and made her way over to Nickelodeon Studios.
"Yes, yes, of course Bob can keep his job as long as he doesn't screw things up... I love you too, Sis," Jonathan said as he was talking on the phone with someone very important. "We'll see you at Thanksgiving. As soon as I rake in more cash for teenage angst on Moody's Point... That Mazinsky kid is somethin' else, not to mention the official ToonFace page has over a million likes ever since the mysterious new student added to the series. I'm gonna make Bernie Bernstein so green that people will think he's the second coming of Reptar."
"Hey, I'm here to see Jonathan Witt?" Betty spoke up as she came up to a woman with an earpiece on her ear, looking like a personal secretary.
"Do you have an appointment?" The woman asked her.
"Appointment Schmappointment. This is very important!" Betty glared. "So are ya gonna let me in to see him or am I gonna haveta get rough with ya?"
"No need for hostilities, ma'am..." The woman replied before she pushed a button on her earpiece as she took out her phone as it started to ring.
Betty then stood back a little and crossed her arms.
"Yeah, yeah, well you can take your turkey and shove it right up your-" Jonathan began to rant on the phone before he had an incoming call. "Ugh... Wait a sec, I'm getting a call on the personal line. Love you too, Sis, bye," he then said before hanging up and then answered the next call. "Y'ello? This is Jonathan Witt." he then answered rather smugly with a grin.
"Sir? There's a very angry man here to see you." The woman said on the other line.
"I'm a WOMAN!" Betty snapped.
"My mistake." The woman then said.
"A new client?" Jonathan grinned hopefully and eagerly. "Is it that fabulous Hollywood director Quentin Smithee?" he then asked hopefully.
"Uh... No..." The woman then said.
"Well... Whatever then..." Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Lemme see them... I'm coming out of my trailer." he then said before he hung up and soon began to open the door, revealing his trailer was actually a portable toilet and rushed inside as a line had formed after he had left it with people eager to use it which included a sad blonde girl, a guy who looked like Albert Einstein, a young man with a fishbowl in his hands and appeared to be wearing mostly black, a short leather jacket-wearing tough guy, and another guy who had a book with him, but in the far end of the line was a young boy with a baseball cap known as Little Johnny who looked very anxious to be next in line as he really needed to go as "The Whizz Kid", but the next person in line was quick to go before he could have a chance to.
Betty looked annoyed before looking over. "Ah, there he is... I recognize that ugly mug of his anywhere..." she then muttered to herself.
"Yeah, yeah, whatya want?" Jonathan asked as he put his hands on his hips as he came to see Betty. "Look, if your kid failed the audition for my last show then it's tough luck. There's no business like show business after all."
"No, it ain't that... I wanna talk to you about Mike Mazinsky." Betty demanded.
"Ah... That kid's interesting," Jonathan smirked. "We got a lot of new launch of female viewers who just tune in to see him in action. He's a great boy, I'd adopt him if I cared a squish about kids."
"You haven't changed a bit..." Betty smirked back darkly.
"Erm... Have we met?" Jonathan asked.
"It's a long story," Betty replied. "So... Mike's gonna be going away for a few days, so-"
"Oh, no, no, no can do," Jonathan shook his head. "Mike and I have ourselves a very busy contract and he needs to come here for at least three hours of rehearsal and shooting new episodes of Moody's Point and unless I see a proper parent or guardian, not that I would care anyway, that kid is mine to exploit."
Betty soon narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'm lookin' after her for a while and we're going on family vacation." she then started to say.
"Oh... Well, that's just too bad, so sad, isn't it?" Jonathan retorted before chuckling with a smirk. "Like I said, there's a contract involved."
"I don't care about any stinkin' contract," Betty huffed before she grabbed him by his collar. "You're gonna let Mike take a little break. In fact, let the other kids take a break too! There's something in TV business called a seasonal hiatus, ya know!"
"Excuse me, do you know who I am?" Jonathan retorted. "Who do you think you are? There are no vacations in being a celebrity! You ever hear of that Ricky Sprocket kid from WishWorks Studios? He's been in movies since he's been in diapers!"
"I don't care what other kids do, I say you give these kids a break and the name is Betty DeVille!" Betty glared.
"DeVille?" Jonathan repeated. "Say... That name sounds familiar, but I can't put my finger on why..." he then commented.
"You ever make a commercial with twin babies with a pyramid of diaper boxes?" Betty asked.
"Ah, yes, that was my best work until the mother got snippy with me and decided to drag her brats away and I wanted to remind them of the good fun they had and even tried to give him candy," Jonathan chuckled. "But that couldn't be you by any-"
Betty soon snarled as her eyes flashed red as she got in his face.
"That was... You...?" Jonathan then asked nervously before grinning. "Hey... N-No hard feelings about that, right? Your kids are all grown up now, right...? Heh... Come on... Let's talk this over..."
Betty just growled as she sounded a bit darker and scary.
"Uh... Erm... Moira? I'm going out to lunch!" Jonathan soon called out nervously.
"What a coincidence! So am I." The woman, named Moira, said as she began to put her jacket on and quickly ran out of Nickelodeon Studios.
Jonathan blinked before chuckling nervously as Betty began to look like she was going to do something very risky to him.