Everyone sat down to eat at the breakfast table, ready to inhale whatever was on their plate. This morning's special was cactus microwaved by Robo's weapons systems on low power. Despite the faint green glow, it tasted fairly good. Marle and Schala just started some boring heartfelt discussion about how hard it was being royalty when Ozzie decided it was time to be evil again.

"Crono, last night, what were those strange noises coming from your room?"

Schala rose to her feet. "Are you insinuating something?"

Ozzie had to think fast. "Robo, did you hear something during the night?"

"Indeed. My sensors picked noise from the other end of the hallway last night. However, most of the noise was coming Ozzie and Ayla's room."

A look a disgust came over Marle's face. "Ozzie? Ayla? Ugh..."

Nu saw Ozzie had already dug his own grave and fell in. Now it was time to start shoveling on the dirt. "I couldn't sleep last night from all the crashing noises coming from Ozzie's room. It was like the two of them were... never mind."

Marle stood up with her hands on her hips. "Ayla? What were you thinking last night?!"

Ayla, absolutely ignorant of what everyone was talking about, finished off her third plate of cactus before she answered. "Ayla no remember anything last night. What everyone talking about?"

Ozzie defend himself, nearly yelling. "We didn't do anything. I didn't touch her, I didn't use my mind control..."

"So that's it!" Lucca snapped. "You filthy green..."

"How dare you?!" accused Schala.

Magus saw his opportunity. An evil smile ran across his face. "Kill, Alfador! Kill!"

Before Ozzie could react, a purple blur flew through the air straight toward him. A small set of claws raked his forehead. Ozzie ran his green hand across his brow, then looked at the blood on his fingers. That purple beast had finally gone too far. Ozzie shot a lightning bolt out of his fingertip at the blasted feline, but it dodged out of the way.

As Alfador got ready to pounce at the Mystic yet again, Magus got an idea. "Everyone! Charge up Alfador with your magic!"

Schala agreed. "Shadow Doom Blaze!"

Alfador absorbed the spell, glowing an errie red. One by one, Alfador absorbed the spells Dark Matter, Luminaire, Flare, Ice 2, Water 2, and Shock. When he absorbing the last spell, Alfador was glowing white and shooting sparks out of his eyes.

"Sir!" yelled a Poyozo. "Alfador's power level has exceeded that of Lavos Core! What are we supposed to do? If this keeps up, he could explode and destroy the very fabric of space-time!"

"This is gonna be fun!" yelled Jimmy. "Wahoo! Go kitty, go!"

Ozzie was prepared this time. He set up his blue energy barrier. Now he was invincible.

"Foolish mortal!" boomed a disembodied voice. "Did you think you can stand up against the power of the almighty Alfador?"

Alfador flew through air at the speed of light, shattering Ozzie's energy barrier and pounding Ozzie with unholy amounts of Shadow magic. A blinding flash filled the room. When it subsided, Ozzie was laying unconscious on the floor and Alfador was standing twelve feet, back to his normal purple color. Exhausted from becoming all-powerful for a few seconds, Alfador curled up and went to sleep.

The wall panel slid open again, and Jimmy looked at the scene, smiling. "Well, it looks like some of us haven't been getting along. Ozzie, get up and listen when I'm talking to you."

A Poyozo appeared out of nowhere and doused Ozzie with a bucket of Elixer. The beaten Mystic stood to his feet, and focused on the screen in fear of the Entity summoning a group of cats to attack him if he disobeyed.

"Today's reward challenge will be a swimming contest. During the night, I put in a small lake outside. Your challenge will be to swim across the lake. Ladies, please change into your swim gear in your bedrooms."

Four very small swimsuits appeared in front of the group. Marle thought they looked a like they might be a little bit tight. Lucca quickly crunched some numbers in her head.

"Entity! We can't wear those!"

"And why not?"

"They would kill us. If we ever managed to get the things on, they'd and exert so much pressure on our chests that our lungs couldn't expand. We'd die of suffocation in a matter of minutes."

"We all have to make sacrifices, okay? Well, since you whiny little ladies just have to have your oxygen, I'll just let everyone swim in their normal clothes. Have fun!"

Ten minutes later, everyone was lined up on the side of the lake. A hovering Poyozo screeched out the commands. "Ready... set... go!" Everyone dove in except Alfador, who didn't want to get wet, and Robo, who didn't want to short circuit. The race was on.

It turned out some people didn't know very much about swimming. Schala simply sank to the bottom as soon as she jumped in, and crawled back onto the shore of the lake. Magus managed to doggie paddle a bit, but he still wasn't doing very well. Ozzie and Nu found out their huge bodies made it impossible for them to swim, though they did float fairly well.

Lucca and Marle swam as hard as they could, but they wouldn't keep up with Crono, Ayla, and Frog. Frog dove underwater, making it impossible for anyone to see him. Still, Crono and Ayla swam as hard as they could. They stroked faster and faster, neither one able to get very much ahead of the other. Crono pulled a few inches into the lead, until he lost it to Ayla, until he pulled back into the lead... The two swimmers were neck and neck as they drew nearer to the shoreline. There were ten feet to go, eight feet, six feet, four feet... Suddenly, Frog leaped out the water and onto the shore. "Thou didst try, Crono and Ayla. I commend thee for it."

"A winner is... Frog!" said the Poyozo in an overly shrill voice. "I will return with your prize momentarily." The Poyozo disappeared, then reappeared holding a dish three times its size, carrying on it a Hyper Kabob. It was roast to a beautiful deep brown, sprinkled with various secret ingredients, and smelled absolutely divine. Frog almost started to drool. This was his?

"Oh, I almost forgot, here's your prize." The Poyozo used its free hand to toss a Tonic at Frog. "Enjoy it. I'm going to go eat." The Poyozo disappeared, taking with it the delicious Hyper Kabob. Frog started to tremble with anger.

Schala put her arm around Frog's shoulder and tried to comfort him. "It's okay, Glenn. We'll all survive this torture somehow. Just let it go."

Gripping his Necklace of Protection from Evil +1, Frog agreed. "Thou art right, Schala. Let us returnth to the house."

The rest of the day dragged on, with nothing really exciting happening. Ozzie sat in a corner hoping he'd be voted off soon just so he could get away from Alfador. Marle and Frog washed the dirty dishes, Frog practiced his swordsmanship, Lucca played around with her chemistry set, Nu went over his brilliant plans, Robo defragmented his hard drive, Schala wrote in her diary, and Crono and Magus exchanged cat-grooming tips. Finally, night came and everyone went to their bedrooms.

Now Jimmy was ready to go desperate measures to force his chosen couple together. Magus and Lucca were both too stupid to act on their subconscious desires, so it was time to give their subconscious a little help.

Lucca was about to lay down to sleep when her pillow spontaneously combusted, igniting her entire bed in flames. Magus cast an ice spell on the flames, and two gigantic chunks of frozen water appeared, dousing the fire. When the raging flame disappeared, Lucca's bed was no more than ashes.

"Great! Now where am I going to sleep?"

At the same time, the eyes of both roommates fell on Magus's nice, big, soft bed.

"I guess we have no choice," said Magus flatly.

"I don't want to do this any more than you do," Lucca snapped, "but we both have to get some sleep."

"Okay. It's decided." Magus picked up the Reaper, and with one powerful slice, cut the bed in two. Lucca pulled the two halves apart, and each of the two roommates went to sleep in their own little bed.

Jimmy put his head down on his desk and nearly started crying.