Yeah. We burned a CD, it's called, "Mullet Fuel", with such classics as: English Rayearth OP (har har); The Mari Rap; Still Time; Obsession; etc. Great stuff. Yes.

So, the long awaited (cough cough) Chapter 3 is here *looks around and notices no one around* BAAH!!!!!

Disclaimer: *sticks tongue out* not tellin'!

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Our distressed heroine sat in the elevator, waiting for someone to perhaps notice her stuck up there. It had been several hours, and she had been sitting in the dark for some time now. Considering the scene that she saw earlier, she was afraid of what would happen during the night at this mall. She had a right to be.

"Forty-five bottles of beer on the wall, forty-five bottles of beer.." muttered Hitomi, having gone down from a hundred two times already. Groaning, she decided that her destiny was in her own hands, and she did not want to stick around to find some more rats.

It suddenly came to her like a bolt of lighting, her pendant! It was an heirloom given to her by her grandmother when she was younger. Her grandmother had given it to her for protection. A smile played across her features as she remembered her grandma giving it to her…

"Haruka," began the old hag sitting on the steps.

"Erm… Hitomi.."

"Oh, sorry my child, my mind is slipping. Come to me Hotohori."

"Urrrgggh," grumbled the little Hitomi who usually avoided the old woman. Something about that old woman scared her… perhaps it was the fact that she never remembered her name, or her smell.

"Hotaru," started the old woman once more, ignoring the glare from the little girl, "Once when I was little I got lost in mall. So, being as brilliant, and since in those days we had to walk five miles in the snow to get to school, I stole this locket."

"Isn't that a pendant?"

"That's what I said, a locket," snapped the old woman, annoyed with the impertinence of the little whipper-snapper for talking back. "If you ever are in trouble use this locket, it'll help you no matter what. Now go away child, I'm only a bit-actor and thus you will never see me again."

"Oh, too bad," said Hitomi, rolling her eyes.

Hitomi nodded, the old hag had been right. She was in a tight situation, and the pendant would help her. Reaching back she unclasped it from behind her and pulled it forward to look at it. The pink pendant swung with time, seeming to produce its own light in the dark atmosphere. It was mystical, and filled with much magic. Thus, she used it to… pick the lock.

The elevator shuddered and the doors slowly opened.

"Freedom, horrible horrible freedom!" yelled Hitomi, running out of the elevator and kissing the ground.

Once she stopped her make-out session with the floor, she looked up to notice that the lights had come on above her. Standing up, the lights throughout the mall slowly turned on, reaching the far ends of the mall. Strangely enough, the mall began to return to life, without the clutter of the customers.

A portable pretzel stand, carried by men dressed as monks with paper hats and aprons, marched by her, setting up near the fountain. What appeared to be a female wolf humanoid appeared from the carpet store and began to air out the carpets, muttering about the stench of human.

"Okaaaaaaay…" Hitomi said nervously, hurrying away towards the northern end of the mall. On the way, she spotted what appeared to be a pornography shop. Within the shop, an old man, his beard touching the floor, was reading an obscene magazine, his eyes lifted and scanned her hungrily.

"Eeew…old lech…" she hurried on. Beside the porno, was a children's toy store. Inside, a tiny blond boy with blue eyes had set up a mini war; Barbie versus G.I Joe. Fighting wasn't the only thing those toys were doing. Across the way was a tuxedo shop, a tall swarthy fellow in a tuxedo and holding a cocktail turned and smiled at her.

"Ah, welcome back. In our previous chapter, Mary Sue had prevailed in bringing Dilandau to the good side of…"

Hitomi hurried on.

"Van-Samaaaaaaaa!" came a high-pitched voice. Hitomi turned to see a humanoid cat-girl running towards a figure that was holding a dead rat before him proudly.

The boy from earlier turned and saw her, rolling his eyes. "Oh, it's you. What are you doing here, Gaea is closed!" he demanded, approaching her warily.

"It's not by choice," Hitomi growled, "I got stuck in the elevator."

The dark-haired boy sighed, "Fine, since you're here, I guess I'll give you your free meal." Well, she was kind of hungry, she realized suddenly.

"Van-sama," the cat-girl hissed warningly, "who is she?"

"Some girl, from the Outside obviously. I mean, look at her clothes." The boy replied haughtily.

"Look who's talking…" grumbled the teen girl, looking over his striped shirt and white pants, topped off with a paper hat.

"Van-sama," a husky voice suddenly interrupted. Turning, she saw a tall muscular man, covered in battle scars, leaning on a mop, dressed as a janitor.

The boy, obviously named Van, stiffened with pride and held the Rat forth, a sudden air of dignity radiating from his lanky form.

"I, Van Slanzar de Fanel, have succeeded in the Rite of the Rat Slaying! Here is my proof! The corpse of the Rat Queen!" he cried.

A sudden cheer rose from the citizens of Foodnelia. They had a new Manager! There was, at last, hope in their future.

"Van-sama, who is this?" Balgus inquired, gesturing to Hitomi.

"I dunno, but I owe her a free meal. She says she got locked in the elevator when Gaea closed."

"Hi, I'm Hitomi Kanzaki," she said hesitantly, offering her hand to the battle scarred man.

"From the Outside!" he exclaimed, looking at her clothes. "Lady Hitomi, we will do all in our power to return you to your world!"

"Oh, thank you!" she gushed, relieved that there would be a way out of this hell-hole.

With a grunt, Van turned and, with his cat-girl clinging to him like a leech, walked into the crowd that had formed.

Just outside the Foodnelia Court, a gathering of golf carts sat in wait. A red lawn mower quickly pulled up at the speed of three miles per hour.

"So, that's the vile Foodnelia Court," sighed the rider of the red lawn mower, playing with a lighter.

"Yes Lord Dilandau."

"Did I give you permission to speak!?" snarled the albino, a fist shooting out and punching the RatSlayer.

"I am sorry for my disloyalty, Dilandau-sama."

"So, this back-wash sorry excuse for a section of the mall has a new Manager. We should give them a welcoming present for him tonight, at perhaps eleven o'clock sharp," said the albino, ignoring the Foodnelian citizen who walked past the huddled group of carts, ignoring them in turn.

"Yes Lord Dilandau-sama!"

"What?"

"Sorry sir!"

"Pick one and stick with it!"

With that the group switched on their stealth cloak forms and vanished to wait for ten minutes.

"Van-sama! You don't flip aggressively enough!" scolded Balgus, watching Van flipping the hamburgers.

"Any harder Balgus and they'll fall off the grill!" snapped the youth, obviously annoyed. Sighing once more, he flipped the burger, which fell off the grill. "See, see!"

"Well, if I can make a suggestion Van-sama…"

"ARGH! You're a janitor! What do you know!?"
"I served your Father when he flipped burgers, and your brother…"

"Please Balgus, don't mention him," sniffed Van, turning away, hurt. There was an uneasy silence between the two as Van proceeded to flip hamburgers, the soft sizzle of hamburger meat echoing throughout the Foodnelia Court.

Hitomi sat and watched the exchange with curiosity; perhaps she would never understand what drives these people to live their lives like this. However, she concluded, while in Rome do as the Roman's do.

"Here."

Looking up she noticed Van sitting down across from her, a hamburger having been placed in front of her.

"Thank you…" she replied, looking down at the burger. It looked okay… perhaps she should eat it… the boy was looking at her with such love and hope.

"Come on, what do you think?" grinned Van, prompting her forward with his hands. Hitomi gulped and looked down at the hamburger, then looked back at Van.

"Aren't you awfully young to be Manager?"

"My Father was Manager, however he died in a horrible accident when I was only five years old…" Van started then turned away, hurt once more.

"What happened?" the concerned filled teenage girl asked, reaching her hand out to comfort Van.

"Caught in the grease trap, it took Balgus a week to get the whole thing out of there," whispered the teen, reliving the horrible experience once more. "My brother would have been Manager, however during Rite of RatSlaying he vanished. My Mom died soon after…"

A frown appeared on Hitomi's face, feeling sorry for the rude youth, "What happened? Sorrow, regret?" she said, about to take a bite of the hamburger.

"E-coli," he gasped, face in his hands.

Hitomi stopped immediately and looked down at the hamburger. She took the chance while Van was still having his grief session to chuck the hamburger over her shoulder, hitting a citizen in the face and knocking him over.

"So, what do you think?" Van asked, brightening up with a grin on his face. Hope shined in his eyes.

"Mmmmm," Hitomi said, rubbing her stomach, a big fake grin on her face as she chewed air.

A big grin appeared on his face as he burst out laughing, "Yay! I did for once!"

Hitomi only nodded and smiled, wondering what she had just done.

At the gates of the Foodnelia Court two guards were stationed, watching for any sign of something suspicious.

"So then I started hitting on the girl who worked at the Chinese stand, but her Mom found us," sighed Guard D, rolling his eyes while leaning against his broom.

Guard E laughed. "Well, I guess it wasn't your day…Did you hear that?"

"That ominous buzzing sound that keeps getting closer? Nah."

"I don't know…it keeps getting louder…"

"Maybe the Manager's trying a new recipe?"

"Doesn't sound like grilling…"

A sudden evil laughter filled the air.

"Hmm, maybe we should tell Balgus…"

"That is what he pays us for…" they pondered, neither of them moving.

Bee-Beep!

THA-THUMP!

Guard D looked down in horror as his companion was flattened by an unseen force. "That can't be good…" he mused.

THA-THUMP!

"Attack!! Attack! Zears is attacking!!!"

Everyone froze in horror as Guard F came running towards them, his shirt torn and bloody from the recent attack.

"Everyone, to your battle stations!" screamed the new Manager, running forth to fetch his trusty spatula.

Everyone stood there frozen, looking at Van blankly.

"Balgus, come here," Van said sweetly, trying to suppress his anger.

"Yes Van-sama," chuckled Balgus, leaning against his mop.

"I thought we went over these procedures…." Whispered the youth, fury boiling up in his eyes.

"… when your Father was alive…"

"Oh shit…"

Screams filled the air as people were being flattened. People finally got the idea to try to fight back and grabbed the brooms, spoons, forks, chopsticks, whatever they could find. They were ready to die fighting for their section of the mall, to protect the new Manager.

"Hurry, try to put out the flames!" yelled Merle, dumping another smoothie on-top of the burning sushi stand, cooking the fish. Evil laughter filled the air once more as the unseen red lawn mower plowed down another person.

"Burn, burrrrrrrrn!!" cried the albino in ecstasy, using his built in flamethrower to set the surrounding aflame.

Guard F, brandishing a plastic knife and a napkin as a shield, fought bravely against air. "These bastards fight without honor! They attack from behind!" he cried as he watched Guard G was plowed over.

"Behind you Guard F!"

It was too late, and the valiant guard was hit from behind.

THA-THUMP!

Bee-Beep.

Balgus and Van fought side-by-side, mop and spatula, swatting at air randomly, hoping to end their attackers lives.

"To your left!" screeched Hitomi, pointing.

Van swatted to the right.

"I said left!"

"But you pointed right!"

"I said left!"

"Your left or mine?"

"I'm behind you!"

"Then what good does pointing do!?" he snarled sarcastically, turning back to the fray.

"You can see the unseen!" Balgus exclaimed, impressed.

"You can see their wheels!" Hitomi cried, exasperated.

"I don't see them…" Van muttered as a set of small wheels went right by them.

Bee-Beep.

Van looked around in horror, his eyes wide. Foodnelia was burning! The sprinklers weren't coming on! Rage enveloped him, and he lunged, his spatula attacking anyone in range, including Balgus. The battle scarred man fell, injured, then turned over to Van who had stopped, realizing what he had just done.

"BALGUS!"

"Van-sama! Take the Lady Hitomi to the legendary Escalator, and flee to the second level!" gasped Balgus, blood spewing from his mouth.

"I can't Balgus!" cried Van, his lanky form shaking with fear and guilt.

"As long as Foodnelia has a Manager, it has a future! Now go! Hurry!" screamed the downed warrior, looking at Van with hope in his eyes.

Van hesitated, then grabbed Hitomi and ran towards the exit.

"No, nooo!" cried Hitomi, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"We must escape! Come girl!"

The two dodged out of the exit, jumping over Guard D and E's bodies, towards the escalator. Once they had finally reached it, Van stood in awe of the mighty Escalator.

"It's an Escalator, Van, snap outta it." Hitomi said flatly, snapping her fingers by his head.

"Just as the ancient napkins said!" gasped Van. Getting hold of himself, he cut his thumb with the spatula and wiped it against the rat's fur. Pulling out the thin key, he opened a small door and plunged the key in. A small opening appeared, and he plunged the rat in with a sickening sound.

"Come girl!" Van yelled as the Escalator came to life, the steps sliding up slowly. The two leapt on and began their slow ascent.

"BALGUS!" screeched Van, looking back.

"Van-sama…return and rebuild Foodnelia Court…" whispered the warrior. Grabbing his broken mop, he struggled to his feet and faced the oncoming lawn mower, now visible.

"AAAAAHHH!" the worn warrior cried, lunging at the monstrous mower.

THA-THUMP—GAGAGAGAGAGAGA…

The proud warrior was caught in the blades of the lawn mower. Balgus was defeated.

"BALGUS!!!" Van cried, falling to his knees, grief overwhelming.

The cat-girl, gathered amongst other survivors as golf carts circled them menacingly, watched them ascend slowly out of sight.

"Vaaaaan-samaaaaaaaaaaaa!" she wailed as the sprinklers came on.

The Foodnelia Court had burned to the ground.

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*stares blankly at story* … yeah….. read and review… if you're still there…..