A/N - WARNING! This is a pretty graphic chapter. This writer takes no responsibility for your cringe factor reaction (on the other hand since you're a "Happy Tree Friends" fan you probably already have a high cringe factor tolerance, so chances are you won't be very shocked at all! What do I know? But it had to be said.)

In all seriousness though this chapter has a pretty high squick factor. I'm not going to change the whole story's rating just because of the contents of one chapter (especially since it's really the only chapter in the story quite like this) but I will say that this chapter, by itself, probably merits an "M" rating. Proceed at your own risk. You have been warned.

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 50:

50 – LOCO'S NARRATIVE

Top Classification, will self-delete after perusal

From: Loco

To: Fresko

Re: Barry and his family

Your request was received by me. As you will shortly see, I've been expecting a request like this from you for some time. Please be advised that what I relate is not to be shared with anyone beyond the select set of people who already know the story.

As Flippy told you Barry is the son of a high-profile family. His father was indeed a city mayor at one time, and his mother did serve as head of the human community. I had dealings with both of them and they were good people. More importantly, they were effective people, especially the father who, during his time as Mayor, strengthened the flying city's defenses and attack capabilities so much that for a while there was even talk that the Marauders might be beaten for good. The annihilation of the Marauder forces at the end of a war ten years ago was a direct result of Barry's father's efforts. XL-Jack-3 took him seriously enough that after things settled down again he dispatched his top right hand person to take care of the threat.

You might wonder why XL-Jack-3 didn't do the job himself; the answer is simply because getting at Barry's family required actually entering Metramegopolis which, obviously, XL-Jack-3 could not do himself. So he sent Klure to do the job for him.

Yes that Klure.

I don't have to tell you about Klure's legendary cruelty; if you haven't seen him on the battlefield, you've heard about it. He's a cyborg – a combination of man and machine. But he wasn't always one. He was born human who knows how many years ago? As time has gone by he's replaced various organs with cybernetic implants to keep himself alive. After XL-Jack-3 himself he's probably the oldest Marauder there is. By now I doubt that there's much human left in him, but ten years ago he wasn't quite so cybernetic as he is now. While his heart, lungs, and some other vitals had become artificial, his sexual organs were still all natural, thank you very much. And he knew how to use them, even after so many of his other body parts had been replaced.

From what I was able to gather after the fact Klure's orders were simply to enter the city and kill Barry's parents. However Klure, being the person that he is, seized the opportunity to go far beyond his directions. He broke into their dwelling and tried to kill everyone inside, something he almost succeeded in doing; Barry was the only survivor.

But he did more than just murder the family. I was visiting Metramegopolis myself at the time on a diplomatic mission on behalf of our city. I was on my way to the city roof for some evening exercise when I decided to stop at Barry's apartment to talk with his parents. Their dwelling was near the city roof, on the highest residential level. That's probably how Klure got in to the city undetected; he came from the roof and was able to reach the dwelling quickly.

I knew as soon as I reached the front door that something was wrong, as I could hear what sounded like a struggle coming from inside. Before I could knock on the door the sounds changed to several loud screams. I didn't wait. I pulled out a blaster and vaporized the front door of the apartment.

I'll never forget what I saw in that house: several bodies lying on the floor, some horribly mutilated. Blood everywhere. A large man on top of a young woman raping her viciously and laughing while he did it. A small boy sitting against one wall being forced to watch (I found out afterwards that Klure had immobilized everyone in the house when he arrived; the boy couldn't move his body).

Klure killed that girl as soon as he saw me and he snatched up the boy and used him as a hostage to try to get past me. I couldn't attack him that way and he knew it. He ordered me to get out of his way so he could leave, threatening to kill his hostage if I refused.

It was then that Klure made his mistake. When he grabbed Barry (that's who the small boy was; he was only six at the time), he held him upside down by his feet. I suppose he wanted to show me how easily he could just bash the kid's head against a wall or something. Klure had used a weapon on the whole family that paralyzed their bodies; this is a marauder weapon that XL-Jack-3 uses when he interrogates prisoners. The prisoner is completely at the captor's mercy, being unable to move any of his limbs. However the chemical that paralyzes the body does not affect the head, so the prisoner can answer questions.

Klure had not stopped to cover himself up when I entered the dwelling, so he stood there facing me, holding Barry by his feet against his body. And that was when something happened that I never expected. While Klure was laughing at me the boy suddenly bit into Klure's genitals.

I'll say this about male human sexual anatomy: it's very poorly constructed. The human male's biggest weakness has to be that his most sensitive organs hang between his legs on the outside of his body where anyone can get at them. I've never heard anyone scream the way Klure did right then. Such a primal howl of pain. He let go of the boy, which only made things worse for him because as Barry fell towards the ground he pulled Klure's genitals with him. He castrated that bastard right then and there with his teeth; I've never seen anything like it anywhere else, and I sincerely hope I never see anyone do something like that ever again!

Well I didn't realize at first what was going on. I saw Klure let go of the boy and I ran forward to grab him as he fell to stop him from hitting his head. I did catch him, but he'd already lapsed into unconsciousness.

As for Klure, he'd fallen down and was lying on the ground screaming in agony, completely unable to do anything for himself. That's how I was able to capture him, but he didn't stay caught for very long. We took him first to a hospital for treatment before trying to interrogate him or sending him to the prison. It was while he was under medical care that XL-Jack-3 sent Marauders to rescue him. I'm told that XL-Jack-3 had him fitted with new implants and he became even more of cyborg than he already was. He wasn't punished beyond that. I guess XL-Jack-3 decided that he'd been punished enough already and, even if he had exceeded his orders, he had still succeeded in his initial mission.

As for the boy he was comatose for several days. I kept watch over him during that time and was there when he woke up. I'm not sure he knew what was going on at first when he regained consciousness because he fixated on me and seemed to think I was his father. He didn't want me to leave, so I stayed on at the flying city at that time. When he was able to leave the hospital it was decided, both for his safety and his health, that he go with me. I accepted a real guardianship of him and took him with me back to the Animal City (and thus got him far, far away from the main Marauder forces and a possibly vengeful Klure) where he lived with me for about three years. Yes, I Loco, a bear, was legal guardian of a human child. He recovered himself while he lived with me and eventually I started teaching him how to fight. After three years Dane became his new guardian and he was sent back to Metramegopolis. When that happened I asked Flippy to take charge of his training. He did, with results that you have seen for yourself.

So how does this concern you? It was while Barry lived with me that you met him for the first time, but since you were only a kitten, and he was still a little kid, I'm not surprised neither of you recognized each other when you met again last year. Perhaps you don't remember being a kitten when your family lived next door to me? You and he were playmates for a while, even if he was a lot bigger than you. Of course in the years since he left you grew up and became an adult. He grew older and entered his own puberty. So much has happened since then I repeat that I'm not surprised you didn't recognize each other. Especially since you didn't see him when you spent your exchange semester at Metramegopolis during your college days. Last year was the first time you saw each other since he left our city. Neither of you looked anything like what you used to look like from the old days. But I have always known you'd meet up again, and after he pulled you off the battlefield last year I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd be telling you this story.

That's all I can tell you. Now I suggest you go find him and tell him who you are, and that you know his story.

End communication.

(To Be Continued)

A/N - Well if you're reading this note then you made it though this chapter. Whether you made it through without flinching is another question. Like I said this is the only chapter in this story to get so graphic, otherwise I would have to change its overall rating to "M." I figure I can do something like this once and keep it at a "T" rating though. See you next time!