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 37:

37 - CAPTAIN

Fresko, the Captain of the Animal City Special Forces was a cat (pardon, a feline) and there was a very good reason why he was already a legend as a fighter. Simply put he was one of the best. Period. Just as Flippy and Splendid could go solo together in a field of thousands of Marauders and cause massive chaos in a short time, so could Fresko do the same thing, although on a somewhat smaller scale because he usually worked alone when he wasn't commanding the Special Forces. He had been born and raised in the Animal City and had trained under Loco himself. Loco had taught him well; he had spotted Fresko's fighting abilities at an early age and had taken him on as a protege. All during his school days, and later, he had worked closely with the old bear. After he finished his education Loco put him into the special forces where he quickly distinguished himself, rising through the ranks to become captain of the division. And he was still quite young.

Fresko had also been at school with Lifty and Shifty, and their other classmates Flaky, Petunia, and Nutty. The Animal City University (ACU) was the main school of higher learning in the Animal City, and in addition to the local residents sometimes animals from Metramegopolis would come study there for a while through an exchange program with Metramegopolis University (MU). Toothy had done that and had been an exchange student at ACU when Fresko first entered the school. Later Toothy took Fresko with him back to Metramegopolis so that the young feline could do an exchange year at MU. That year away from his home had been invaluable for Fresko's development; in addition to being exposed to human and AI cultures for the first time, and making a whole crowd of new friends, he had gained a much larger appreciation of the Marauder struggle. At Loco's direction he had trained with Flippy during his time in the flying city, and when he returned home his talents as a fighter had jumped enormously. It was no surprise to Loco that Fresko rose to a command position as quickly as he did once he entered the Special Forces.

Fresko was now an experienced battle veteran, having served with distinction in the last war at Metramegopolis. It was at that time that he became the head of the special forces. Even though he was now a command figure he often went into the field on his own to do solo patrolling. There was very little in the area around the Animal City that escaped his roving eye. He spotted Lifty and Shifty trying to leave camp almost before they actually began their escape attempt and he quietly followed after them. Now the three of them stood facing each other.

"And what do you two raccoons think you're doing?" Fresko asked quietly.

"Nothing" said Lifty, "we just – "

" – decided to go for an afternoon stroll" said Shifty.

"With all of your gear?" murmured Fresko, "oh yes, that would make for nice, leisurely stroll. Don't bother answering. It's quite obvious what you're up to. I should have known that if anyone would desert quickly it would be you two."

"We're not deserting!" sputtered Lifty indignantly, "that would be the last thing we would ever do!"

"Yeah" said Shifty, "we love our city. We'd never run out on it."

"So what are you doing?" said Fresko.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Shifty, "we thought we'd do a little field work."

"Field work" said Fresko dubiously.

"Yes" said Shifty, "we thought we'd sneak over to the Marauder camp and make like we were defecting to them. Then we could do lots of spy work and find out everything."

"And then blow them to smithereens!" said Lifty enthusiastically.

Fresko stared at them.

"That's a great plan" he said, "but there's one problem. You know as well as I do that no animal has ever joined the Marauders. They know it too. Not only would they not believe you were defectors, but they'd kill you before you even had a chance to talk to them."

"There's always a first time" protested Shifty.

"Perhaps" said Fresko, "but even if that's true, you're going the wrong way if you really want to go to the Marauder camp. It's in exactly the opposite direction from this."

"All right" said Shifty angrily, "maybe we are leaving camp. So what? Maybe we don't want to get involved in this battle."

"You were called up" said Fresko mildly, "want has nothing to do with it. It was just luck. Besides you're just here for support. I doubt you'll actually see much action. If you're afraid of – "

"Afraid? We'll show you about afraid!" exclaimed Shifty. Lifty nodded emphatically. The two raccoons dropped their gear and assumed belligerent stances. Fresko sighed.

"You two never learn, do you?" he said, "If you couldn't take me out on my first day at college what makes you think you can do it now?" Both raccoon brothers stopped short; they both remembered the day Fresko had first arrived at ACU. They had tried to cause enmity between Fresko and Flaky. The plot had backfired spectacularly, and Fresko and Flaky had always been friends after that. Neither raccoon brother had ever forgotten the incident and they had tried to avoid Fresko whenever they could after that, but that wasn't always possible. They had had run-ins with him occasionally over the years which had always ended badly (usually as result of some plan of theirs to "get" him gone very wrong). Now he was captain of the special forces, and they were still lowly foot soldiers.

"There's always a first time" growled Shifty.

"Don't get redundant on me" said Fresko, rolling his eyes, "Let's say you succeed; that's assault and battery on top of desertion. Did you know that the penalty for desertion in wartime is death?"

Both Shifty and Lifty stopped for a moment. Truth was, they did know that but had never really considered it until now. Lifty put a paw on Shifty's shoulder.

"Maybe we should stop this" he said. Shifty shook him off.

"They'll have to catch us first" he spat at Fresko. Fresko drew himself up to his full height.

"Very well" he said, as he bared his fearsome claws, "it's your funeral. Bring it on."

(To Be Continued)