A/N - Happy New Year from Metramegopolis! It's time to post another installement.

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 49:

49 – MOTIVATION

Shortly after the end of the match Barry, Flippy, Toothy, and Fresko left the roof and went their separate ways. Toothy showed Fresko to his quarters and left him to settle in for his stay. Cuddles came by about an hour after that to say that the installation of the receiving station was proceeding smoothly and they could begin transporting the prisoners as early as the very next day if desired. He added, however, that Sniffles had indicated that another day or two would probably be needed to finish preparing the section of the POW camp that had been designated for the incoming prisoners.

Flippy called on Fresko shortly after the dinner hour and the two veterans sat for a while swapping news and war stories. Flippy was quite interested to hear the personal details from Fresko about the battle with Durago and, in return, told about his and Splendid's raid on the Marauder camp and meeting with XL-Jack-3 on the day Metramegopolis took off. Fresko was duly impressed.

"So you met XL-Jack-3" he said, "what was he like as a fighter?"

"That's a very hard question to answer" said Flippy, "since we didn't actually get to fight him. But I can say that he was very confident that he could beat us both. And probably he could. We still don't know enough about him to know how he can be destroyed. Until we find that out we can never really beat the Marauders."

Fresko nodded.

"What can you tell me about that kid I fought with earlier?" he asked Flippy, "I don't know him that well but he's going to be quite a warrior."

"Barry?" said Flippy, "yes he's very good. Very good indeed. I've been quite pleased with his progress."

"How old is he?"

"Fifteen since this past spring."

"Fifteen!" exclaimed Fresko, "he fights like a veteran."

"He is a veteran" said Flippy, "he's on the Council you know, and he was on it for the last war too."

"I didn't know that" said Fresko, "but why would I since I don't live here? How long have you been his trainer?"

"Oh a good long time now" said Flippy, "he's been in training for about nine years now. Since he was six."

"Six?" exclaimed Fresko, "but why? For a human, that's almost a baby."

"He's got a motivation" said Flippy.

"Obviously" said Fresko, "I could tell that from the expression on his face before he rushed me. What happened to him?"

For the first time Flippy hesitated before answering.

"He lost his family" the bear said slowly, "of course that's public knowledge. His parents and his siblings were all killed at once in a – situation – from which he was the only survivor."

"And that happened when he was six?"

"Yes. His family was quite high-profile; his father was a former city mayor and his mother was a former leader of the human community. He also had three brothers and a sister, all of them older than him. And all of them are dead."

"That would be motivation enough for anyone" said Fresko with low whistle.

"Yes it would" said Flippy, "but that's not the full story. Everybody knows what I just told you but there's more, and it's pretty horrible."

Fresko looked at him expectantly but Flippy shook his head.

"Sorry Fresko" he said, "but I'm not sure I can talk about this part; it's pretty private. I know the full story, and so does Dane (he's the boy's guardian after all) and Toothy and my grandfather both know. We're the only ones who do though. We don't talk about it without Barry's permission and he never talks about it. My grandfather is the only one who might tell you something about it because he was directly involved with what happened. The rest of us weren't, so we don't feel like we have the right to discuss it."

"I understand" said Fresko who didn't press the point any further, but who also got the underlying message that Flippy was giving him permission to contact Loco about it.

And so he did. After Flippy left he sent a secured message back to the Animal City. The next morning he found a reply from Loco waiting for him on his communications receiver. It came with a notation that said it had a "top classification, will self-delete after perusal."

Without wasting any time Fresko opened the communication. A text document appeared before him, and this is what Fresko read:

(To Be Continued)

A/N - Hee hee hee! Yes, I'm leaving it here for now and you'll just have to wait until next time to find out what that communication says. All I can tell you is: it's a doozy! (and it may require changing the story's rating too. I'll have to think that one over).