(Before I begin this, I'd like to give a personal note to lijay7: Yes, I've been noticing that Jack has been slipping into obscurity for several chapters now, shadowed a bit by Nami and put to the same standard as his cousin-of-the-same-name, but I do promise that he'll be getting his break in the coming chapters. So Jack-fans, sit tight. Until then, on with the show!)

Filing and filing and filing – exactly what the Doctor was busily doing four, even five minutes of the day with the long absence of his highly-trained and well-educated nurse, Elli. The files included medicine shipments, supply deliveries, and… the occasional pizza order. Honestly, the Doctor had never been so busy in his life, but with only Lillia, Ellyn, and cuts and bruises filling his typical day, he could admit to himself that he had never really been busy. He could also admit that the filing of papers and selling of medicine that he had assigned Elli to do for the past 20 years was not, in fact, as difficult as he first assumed. He had even taught himself to pass the sponge into his own hand, the sponge itself being remarkably easy to simply reach over and grab. Who knew that, with Elli's absence, he could actually wheel the sponge tray closer to where he was standing if in possible need of a sponge…

And, indeed, he had needed a sponge for the past few days. Elli was reluctant to leave the Clinic on such short notice for concern of a patient currently under their care... However, the Doctor had strongly reassured her that he could take excellent care of the Clinic and their client, no trouble, no strain. Turns out that this was a bit more than a reassuring lie. Even without a nurse, the Doctor was having quite a leisurely time doing this by himself. However, one problem that plagued him throughout was his severe boredom. He quickly realized that one thing that seemed to keep him busy all day was his constant chatting with Elli. Not all of it was especially entertaining – the way the potted plants are growing, how the grapevines were doing this Summer, what William was up to, the Desperate Housewives finale – but it was the very thing that made it feel as though he were actually busy.

Currently, the Doctor was sitting at his desk, going over a small piece of paper stating that the Turbojolt XL shipment would be ready for Zack to take and deliver as per usual, scanning the fine print for the fifth or sixth time. He simply wanted to ensure that he did not miss any details regarding the shipments that may have eluded him for the past decades. That, and with the only other living soul in the building sound asleep, he was bored beyond measure. He would need to buy a new boredom measure soon if this kept up. However, it didn't.

The Doctor was startled by a sudden knocking at the door. He hadn't heard that relieving sound for far too long, as Zack usually just stepped in due to being the regular shipment-person. He stands up from his chair, hurrying to the door. Perhaps someone was sick or injured – better yet, dying! Finally, he would have something to remove the dullness of his past who-knows-how-long since Elli left…

Opening the door, the Doctor came to an even better surprise than someone with a fatal ailment. There stood Elli, smiling just as brightly as she ever did despite now being in her middle-thirties, along with her husband Cliff (whom he had no quarrel with despite being an undeserving low-life with not nearly as much job training as himself, but that was all in the past). The Doctor lets out a sound of surprise, quickly clearing the way for the two to enter.

"Well, welcome back!" he says happily. "Everything's quite in order, you'll see. For the life of me, I had nothing to do!"

"That's good to hear." Elli says, Cliff nodding once as well. Elli then glanced around once, returning her eyes to the Doctor and speaking quietly "How is our patient doing?"

"Oh, she's sleeping like a rock." The Doctor replies, pointing a thumb toward a hospital bed concealed mostly by a privacy curtain, "Hasn't said a word all day. She seems to be recovering nicely, and I'm sure she'd be able to stand and walk by now if she'd just wake up."

The three of them chuckle at this, sharing in the going-on-middle-aged-professional-physician humor.

"Well, let's see if I can get her up." Elli says, beginning to walk toward the bed. "I think she'd like to know that we've all made it back safely."

Sliding the curtain carefully to one side, Elli approaches the bed and scans over the patient with her eyes for a moment. The girl was around twenty years old, with thick black hair harnessed into two drooping braids on either side of her head, one of which laid overtop an arm sling she was currently sporting. One would think that she'd be tired of droopy pigtails after a while, but apparently not.

"May? May, dear, we're back." Elli says quietly, leaning to look closer to her face. May stirred slightly, and then opened her dark eyes to see Elli staring back at her. She smiled.

"Elli, you're home…" she says sleepily. "…What about everybody else?"

"They're all back, too." Elli replies. "In fact, even more people now. Some of Jack's relatives and another girl."

"Oh, that's good…" May says, pausing to yawn once. Blinking, she continued. "Can I go see everyone soon?"

"The Doctor says that you should be able to walk now, if you feel up to it." Elli claims. The Doctor then intrudes, walking up behind Elli.

"Let me add, though, that your arm will still need time to heal." He states. "I would like you to keep the cast on for at least another week, and then have me check it to make sure you're okay."

"Oh… Yes, of course…" May replies, nodding her head slightly and looking just a bit downcast.

"That's just what happens when you're not careful about how you save your grandpa's life." Cliff says, finally speaking and walking up to join the other two. May laughs quietly, nodding at this as well.

"What you did was quite brave," The Doctor comments. "It's really too bad about old Barley, though…"

"Yes, he is getting on in his years." Elli agrees, sighing.

"It's a good thing that May was around when he tried to milk that bull…" the Doctor adds, nodding to this.

"You can't really hold that against him, though." Cliff states. "After all, he is 97."

-

Quietly opening the door a crack and peeking in, Mary observes the quiet bottom floor of the Library, which looked so far exactly like she had left it. Gray lingered behind her, unable to see over or around her head and wondering with a small smile why Mary was so shy to enter the building that was synonymous with her very name in the town. Mary, Library. Library, Mary. No one in town could think of one without thinking of the other. After finally opening the door the rest of the way, she is quickly greeted by a sound of surprise from a man sitting at a desk and reading some random book, which he immediately drops.

"Mary, sweets!" the man calls, smiling at her. He appeared to be within his sixties, but was in relatively good shape. He wore an age-eroded outdoorsman uniform, topped with a weather beaten, wide-brimmed hat with a dusty feather poking from the side. "And Gray, too! Good to see you made it back okay!"

"Hi, Dad," Mary greets, smiling at him as she and Gray step inside, closing the door behind them.

"Hello, Basil." Gray says with a quick wave of his hand.

"Say, where's Mattie? Did you find him?" Basil inquires, looking to them expectantly.

"Yes, he's out… umm, hanging around," Gray states, deciding not to go into great detail about the Karrie situation just yet. "Has the Library been busy?"

"Eh, about the same as usual," Basil says, shrugging. He finally decides to stand up, walking around the desk and to them. "We're starting to have a bit of a regular guest, mind you. I think he's still upstairs."

"Really?" Mary says with interest. "Who would that be?"

"Stu, of all people," Basil says with a laugh. "Last I saw of him he was blazing through the third book in the Courtship for Dummies series you've got up there. Makes me wonder what he's up to…"

"I can think of one or two things." Mary says with a stifled giggle, sounding quite unlike herself. Gray looks at her strangely.

"What are you thinking?" he inquires.

"Oh, you know what it is." Mary replies, looking at him wryly. "Who was the last person you know of to take an interest in those books?"

"…Oh, yes, right…" Gray mutters, letting out a nervous chuckle. "That could just be coincidence, you know… Of course, I didn't need those books, either. They were just-"

"-for reference, I know." Mary says, swaying her head to the words imitatively. "But let's take a look just in case, it seems like more than a coincidence to me. Maybe Stu's finally thinking about it…"

"I wouldn't want to break his focus reading…" Gray begins. He then lets out a sigh, "but yes, let's check. There is some vague chance that the big guy's finally going to try something…"

"Have fun, kids!" Basil says jokingly. "I'll just stay down here, there's a chapter that really got me hooked!"

"Okay, Dad." Mary says with a small laugh as she and Gray begin climbing up the stairs. Once they are lost to sight, Basil walks back to his seat behind the desk, relocates his dropped book, and quickly finds the page he had left off at. Reading it, he chuckles slightly.

"Oh that Harry, always getting into trouble…"

Meanwhile, Mary tiptoed silently to the top of the stairs, peeking into the room and noticing the reasonably well-muscled back of this new library-goer turned to them, shoulders hunched over something and apparently not noticing them. He wore a simple white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans that were tattered at the ankles(not for style – he had crossed paths with Hannah the dog a few weeks previous, and despite her age she still had a good grip to her teeth), held up now by a self-studded belt instead of the suspenders of old. He also replaced what was once a Beatles-style bowl cut with more normal, shortened hair, gelled at the front to point straight forward about an inch or so. A final thing to point out was, in all respects, Mary and Gray suddenly noticed that he had quite nearly the muscle structure as Hugh…

"Heya, Stu," Mary says knowingly, smiling. Turning quickly to spot them, Stu almost instantly discarded his book under the desk, swallowing once.

"Oh… Umm, hey, welcome back." He greets in all the nonchalance he could muster. "Sorry I couldn't come help you find the kids, but y'know, someone had to take care of Gramma and-"

"-you wanted to catch up on your reading." Mary finishes for him, that knowledgeable smile still on her face. "What step are you at now? Number 13, Talk Without Stuttering? Number 37, the Hand-Hold?"

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Stu says sternly, his face going a small shade of uncharacteristic red.

"Oh, you're blushing!" Mary says, seeming to be having a positively great time prodding Stu about this. Gray grunts once, crossing his arms and looking away from the two. Mary was acting like a schoolgirl… Perhaps some sort of mid-life crisis… "I can't wait to tell Elli that her little brother-!"

"Elli has nothing to find out!" Stu snaps, narrowing his eyes. At least now his continued reddening could be shrugged off as anger. "You've finally gone off the deep end if you think-"

"I don't think, I know." Mary says, seeming to calm down somewhat and re-adjusting her glasses snootily. "I've read every romance novel this building has to offer, and I know. Every guy that isn't 100 social will always deny that they like someone until they have all evidence that the someone, likes them back. Take Gray here for instance-"

"We're leaving." Gray mutters, taking Mary by the braid and… escorting her back to the stairwell. Mary didn't even seem to notice, as she was still talking whilst being dragged along the floor on her feet. Gray knew exactly how the kid felt, and therefore wished him privacy.

As Mary plopped down the stairs, head vanishing after a time, and the sound of dragging became distant, Stu let out a deep sigh, looking up at the roof for a moment. Lowering his head again, Stu crawls beneath the desk, grabs his book, climbs back onto his seat, sets it on the table, and begins to read again.

"Step 25…"

-

"LOOK AT ALL OF THESE CHICKENS!" an astonished Jack shrieks, running through a rather large coop populated by quite a large number of the fowl. "THERE'S 20… 70… 50… THERE'S A LOT OF CHICKENS!"

"Umm… Yes, we do own a great deal of them… being a chicken farm and all…" a bizarre-looking, middle-aged man with a small, white headband supporting curiously long hair, a blue apron, and glasses mutters, watching as this newcomer ran between rows of nervously-watching chickens. He stood at the entrance of the coop, Nami leaning against a wall next to him.

"He'll calm down, don't worry." She states, watching as Jack continued his merry romp among the chickens.

"Should I worry about property damage…?" the man asks tentatively.

"Not unless you own something shiny." Nami replies. Just then, Jack runs right up to Nami, stopping himself by having his hands hit into the wall next to either side of Nami's head. Nami doesn't flinch, this was common enough.

"Nami! Can we bring some home? Please?" he asks energetically.

"We already have chickens at home." Nami reminds him. "And ducks. You know what Takakura said, we shouldn't have more than eight to that coop."

"Oh… right…" Jack says, downtrodden. He sits down on the floor in front of her.

"You have ducks?" the man inquires, sounding interested.

"Two or three" Nami says with a shrug.

"How do you raise them? Don't they fly away?"

"You just need to keep them happy. A nice, clean pond and regular feeding does the trick." Nami explains.

"How do I get myself a pond?" the man questions further.

"I have contacts, who have contacts." Nami explains.

"…You mean Takakura?" Jack says incredulously. "He's not really-"

"Shh, grown-ups are talking." Nami says, Jack muttering to this. Nami continues, ignoring him. "So, if you're interested, I can arrange a contract and have my people come to you."

"Sounds good," The man says, nodding. "Why don't we work out the details over dinner at the Inn?"

"Hold up!" Jack snaps, getting up to his feet and glaring at him. "I don't know WHO you think you are, Mr… umm…"

"Rick."

"Oh, pleased to meet you. Anyway, I don't know WHO you think you are, Mr. Rick, but nobody invites my wife to dinner without first consulting with me! …Wait, actually, not at all!"

"Hey, hey, take it easy…" Rick says reassuringly. "This is purely business, and a gesture between new friends. You can come if you want. Besides, I wouldn't want to ruin my streak."

"What streak is that?" Nami inquires.

"Well, you see, I usually have GOOD luck with girls." Rick explains with a chuckle. "Taking you out to dinner in a romantic way would pretty much ruin that record."

A chill silence fills the air at that moment. Several chickens ruffle their feathers, feeling that something was about to happen…

"…Let me be the one to tell you this." Jack says slowly, stepping aside a couple of paces. "If you say the wrong thing to Nami, you unleash an evil so terrifying that it can crush your very soul…"

At that, every single chicken retreated to the very far end of the coop, crowded and huddled together in one corner. Jack also takes a couple more precautionary steps back. Slowly, Nami gets off of the wall and turns her head toward Rick. At this, the room itself seemed to darken. Rick let out a small whimper, staring wide-eyed at his sure doom.

A moment later, Rick was in the open field of the farm, twenty meters away from the coop's entrance, balancing on his face, with what seemed to be several imprints of himself on the ground behind him, leading back to the Coop.

"Perhaps… I… worded that wrong…" he says to the topsoil, the rest of his body losing its balance and falling to the ground. He twitched once, but otherwise showed no signs of life.

"…Good distance…" Jack comments, having crept to the entrance to inspect the range her blow took the hapless geek.

"I'm not old yet. I still have it." Nami replies, polishing her knuckles with satisfaction.

"No kidding…" Jack says, blinking once. "…You know, it's a good thing that he wasn't around to marry back in the day."

"Why's that?" Nami asks.

"If you two got together, the wedding processions would be murder. It would be tough to tell who wears the tux and who wears the dress!"

Needless to say, Jack joined Rick soon after, beating his distance by a full foot and a half.

"Rick!" came Karen's voice from the farm entrance a moment later, quickly followed by the rest of herself, carrying what was now a 1/4-full bottle of wine. She runs up to him, turning him around to allow him to breathe. "Oh, Rick, what happened to you…"

"He'll be fine." Nami states, walking from the chicken coop toward them. She stops beside Jack. "I haven't killed anyone doing that yet. The absolute worst was a month or two in hospital."

"…You did this?" Karen asks, looking at her. "How? Why?"

"With my five good friends," Nami says, holding her fist out nonchalantly as she turned Jack over as well, "and because he said something that didn't cope with me."

"…You have some nerve, going and doing this to my husband-!" Karen snaps.

"Husband!" Jack exclaims, suddenly coming back to consciousness and staring at Karen for a moment. "How much wine do you have to take down before THAT looks g-"

Jack is sent back to Dreamland suddenly by a wayward (1/5-full) wine bottle at just that moment. Nami looks to him, and then back to Karen.

"…Nice attitude," She states, giving her an impressed look. "You're like a blonde, drunken, preppier version of myself. I say you should be the official tomboy of this town."

"I've heard that before. Ann's beaten me in every Tomboying Tourney so far, though." Karen says, standing up and still looking a bit peeved about Rick. "I only have the edge on her in the cooking portion. Now, I don't care what you've said, you hurt Rick. I have to stand up for my husband…"

Nami stands up as well, giving her a cold eye. "Well, you hurt Jack just now. I might just have to stand up for him as well."

"Oh, so you wanna go?" Karen inquires, smirking once at her.

"Hmm, wouldn't that be interesting…" Nami says. After a moment, she shakes her head. "Not now. I've had a busy time, and I'd like to rest up before another duel."

"Then I suppose I'll keep you to that." Karen says. "Tonight. The Inn. How's that sound?"

"Perfect."

-

"Are you sure you know how to use that?" whispered Lumina to Kate as she, her, and every girl currently under 17 (minus Karrie) in the town hid behind a tree on the edge of the Square. It was a cramped fit, but the evil harpy and her gaggle of zombified guys didn't seem to notice them anyway.

"Of course I do…" Kate says, looking to the loaded blowgun in her hands. "Like shooting spitballs, right?"

"Well, a bit more dangerous…" Lumina points out. "If you inhaled too much and swallowed the dart, you might… die."

"Well, whatever. If this doesn't work, we have plenty of other supplies." Ricca mentions.

"Yup. Good old Anna." Kate says, smiling to her. Anna also smiles, hefting her backpack proudly.

"Okay, now let's do this…" Kate continues, peeking around the tree to see the group a distance from them.

"Is she in range?" Anna asks.

"Looks to be… if I could just get a clear shot around those stupid guys…" Kate murmurs angrily to herself.

"Remember to just aim for the throat." Anna says. "I don't want her to suffer…"

"That makes one of us." Ricca mutters.

"I'll do my best." Kate says with a shrug.

Meanwhile, Karrie was standing near the exit leading to the beach, a finger to her chin and apparently wondering what to do next. Most of the guys, constantly circling around her, weren't exactly in the mood for giving a suggestion.

"Maybe we can go to the beach right now, and suntan…" Karrie suggests. The guys nod at this.

"…or maybe we can stay here and talk about things…" she suggests further. The guys nod at this.

"…or maybe we can go to Yodel Farm and play Parchesi…" she adds after a moment. The guys nod at this.

Humming happily, a graying but energetic merchant in a lemon-lime raincoat and a flamboyant bowler hat of some sort walks to the Square from the north entrance, twirling his thin moustache with one hand and fiddling with a pocket full of money with the other. Karrie sees him from a distance and waves.

"Hello, Won!" she calls. The guys nod at this.

Won doesn't quite seem to notice, however. From behind his translucent, oversized sunglasses one could see that his eyes were closed happily, and he had a spring in his step.

"Oh, boy, I can't believe I managed to sell fourteen SUGDW apples in just one trip!" he says cheerfully to himself as he continued his way south. "I swear, people are getting more and more gullible every da-!"

He is cut off, however, after a small dart pierced into his neck and stuck there. Won remained still for a moment, his eyes beginning to cross.

"Oh… damn karma…" he mumbles, collapsing to the ground immediately afterward.

The girls behind the tree blink once, and then look slowly to Kate. Kate gulps.

"Umm… Oops…" she mutters, glancing back at them nervously. "He got in the way…"

"So much for that plan…" Ricca states, "but at least we won't have many solicitors knocking in the middle of dinnertime…"

"Um… Anna, is the poison in that enough to kill someone…?" Lumina inquires nervously.

"Well, umm… it's fifty-fifty…" Anna replies, blinking.

"Good enough. We'll know if we're in trouble if we don't get our Christmas catalogues this Winter," Ricca says, shrugging. "We have more important things to think of right now. Anna, what else do you have?"

"Umm…" Anna says, looking into her backpack for a moment, "My sniper rifle, my grenade launcher, and- ooh, my candy necklace!" She pulls out all three, quickly placing the candy necklace around her neck and then putting the candy pendant attached to it into her mouth, munching happily.

"…Right, okay, let's go. Hurry, they're on the move." Ricca says, picking up the sniper rifle and standing up straight. Indeed the group was moving, as they all headed down the stairs toward the beach. Picking up random supplies, the girls follow behind stealthily.

A moment later, the guys and Karrie were all standing around at the beach, Karrie smiling and stepping back slightly to distance herself, as though about to announce something.

"Hey, why don't you guys take a look at the new bathing suit I'll be modeling for?" she asks. "I have it just under my clothes, if you-"

Nodding motions powerful enough to send a gust of wind at Karrie from the guys answered her inquiry well enough.

"Oh, okay then." She says with a smile, smoothing out her hair for a moment.

Some distance away, among some foliage on the ledge near the steps to the beach, the girls watched suspiciously in secret, lying out on their stomachs.

"What is she doing…?" Kate says, squinting in an attempt to see better.

"Nothing, I don't think…" Anna begins. "…Oh, wait, she's taking her vest off."

"Well that's okay. She must just be warm…" Lumina says, tilting her head a bit. "…Wait… Now what…?"

"Not sure. She's just fiddling with something…" Ricca observes. "…And now she's… OH, UGH! She can't be THAT warm!"

The girls all look away, cringing at the sight. Ricca aims Anna's sniper rifle blindly and fires, hitting an over-inflated inner tube and causing it to explode. After a long moment, they dare to look toward the group again. They were relieved to see that Karrie had been wearing a bathing suit beneath what she had recently removed. A rather stylish one, as well. Pure, silky white with several frills and a flowing veil headpiece to top it. They assume it must be the combination wedding dress and bathing suit she was talking about earlier.

"That's actually really pretty…" Anna says, tilting her head the opposite way Lumina did.

"Screw being able to swim, though," Kate states. "Imagine the water resistance you get from that."

"Let's just shoot her, we can argue over who gets the dress later." Ricca says, putting her eye to the eyepiece of the rifle.

"Hold on, I want to do it." Kate says, taking hold of it and trying to jerk it from her grip. Ricca holds steady and glances at her.

"I'm the one holding it, I get to fire it." She claims, trying to jerk back. Kate also holds steady, though.

"I think it would be better if I did it…" Kate replies, narrowing her eyes. "This is personal."

"It is for me, TOO." Ricca grunts, trying to yank back at it. The two quickly go into a tugging match with the weapon.

"I don't want you hitting Miro!"

"I don't want you hitting William!"

"I have steadier aim than you!"

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!"

The sound of a shot being fired from the rifle silences both of them, causing them to drop the weapon. Kate turns her head to see if she could find where the bullet had gone. She then gulps.

"…Well, I did just now…" she states, pointing in the direction of Yodel Farm. A hole with several splinters, visible from even where they were, was present where there had been no hole before.

"How'd that cause such a big hole?" Lumina inquires.

"If the farm's as old as the farmer is, it doesn't surprise me." Ricca replies. "That barn house is on its last legs anyway."

"I wonder if you hit anything…" Anna says, humming in thought.

"Well… Fifty-fifty, right?" Kate says, smiling a bit.

"You're a bit clumsy today, Kate." Ricca states. "Maybe you've been hanging around Miro for too long."

"Hey, watch it!" Kate snaps. "Miro's clumsy, yeah, but it's not gonna rub off on me!"

"Says you," Ricca replies.

"Shh!" Anna and Lumina both chorus.

"Let's focus!" Lumina says.

"Yeah, can't you see?" Anna adds. "Karrie's turning us against each other!"

Ricca and Kate think of this for a moment.

"…Yeah." Ricca says, nodding a bit. "We shouldn't be fighting, we should be working together."

"Yeah, you're right." Kate states. "Anna, load the grenade launcher."

"Okay." Anna says. Quickly, she sets a rather high-powered grenade into the nozzle, Lumina helping support the weapon, turning several clunky handles, and then nodding to signify she had finished the job. Kate and Ricca nod back, both taking the weapon by either side and aiming carefully towards Karrie (who was now practicing her various poses and runway walks, asking if the guys liked any and receiving vigorous applause and nodding each time). They each place their finger on the trigger.

"To friendship," Kate proposes, with a nod from Ricca.

"And to revenge," Ricca adds, with a nod from Kate.

They then both press the trigger, sending the grenade inside shooting out and flying up, up, up, much too far up, and much too far in general. After making a graceful, downward arc it lands in the water at least fifteen meters from the shoreline. They all sigh, muttering to themselves.

"…Any more ammo, Anna?" Ricca asks.

"No…" Anna states. "And that was my favorite one, too."

"…Why is that?" Kate asks.

"Well, the numbers on the side of it are a lot bigger than they were on the other ones I had." Anna explains.

"Ooh…" Lumina says, putting a finger to her chin for a moment. "I wonder what those numbers meant…?"

The sound of a massive explosion and a huge spray of water leaping up from the coast answers the question for them. The girls watch as a torrent of water shoots into the sky and dissolves away into mist. What didn't dissolve into mist was a fairly large number of fish, which seemed to fly through the air gracefully for a moment, in an arc quite similar to the one the grenade made, before making their looming descent downward, landing all around, among, and on the girls who haplessly watched from below. About a minute later, the last fish had fallen and the girls opened their eyes to see what damage they might have at least caused to Karrie and the guys. Karrie had been carried along to the sand near Kai's place on a piece of driftwood that was blown onshore by the explosion and was still sitting on it, laughing happily at how exciting that all was and looking completely fish-less. The guys had seen better days, with a squid sucking on Hugh's bicep and what looked like several minnows up Matthew's nostril, but they didn't seem to mind and were sitting near Karrie, still as possessed as ever.

"…Oh, man…" Kate grumbles, sitting up straight and brushing a fish from her shoulder. "And I'm guessing were out of sniper ammo, too?"

"Yeah…" Anna says, nodding a bit and also sitting up. "I didn't think I'd need more than two shots…"

"We should regroup; come up with a plan…" Ricca says, grumbling as she got to her feet and brushed seaweed from her capris.

"We can go to that Inn-place, right?" Lumina says, standing up and not seeming to notice the fish on her head. "That would be good to place to plan in."

"Yeah, let's go." Kate says, standing and beginning to walk (although she didn't really know the way there).

-

As they entered Doug's Place, they look around to find Muffy and Celia chatting with Anna's parents. They look at one another for a moment, an idea popping into their heads. Nonchalantly, they walk over to their table.

"Umm, Dad, Mom, we'd like to talk to Miss Muffy and Celia, alone." Anna says, a learned tone of innocence in her voice.

"Oh, of course." Jack says, getting up. Ann stays put for a moment, however.

"What for?" she asks suspiciously.

"We, umm, want to know how to cook like they do, and you know how much you hate hearing other people's recipes…" Anna replies, smiling a bit.

"…Only because everyone makes theirs wrong…" Ann mutters to herself, nodding and getting up anyway, proceeding to a distant table along with Jack. Pulling up chairs, Anna, Ricca, Lumina, and Kate sit down at the table opposite from a slightly confused Muffy and Celia.

"…Umm, what would you like to know?" Celia begins, not exactly sure if what they said just a moment ago was true or not.

"We want to know-" Lumina begins.

"Fish, dear." Muffy points out, motioning to the top of Lumina's head. Lumina looks up, noticing it, and quickly gets it off of herself. "You should know that it's impolite to speak with a fish on your head. Now, what were you saying?"

"We would like to know…" Kate continues after seeing that Lumina was busy trying to wring the fish slime from her hair. "…what to do in order to get our, umm, boyfriends away from Karrie…"

"We've been putting real effort into it." Ricca continues sternly. "All of our murder attempts have failed and the guys haven't pried their eyes away from that harpy since they saw her!"

Muffy and Celia seem to think about this for a moment. They look to one another, and then back to the teen(ish)s inquisitively.

"So you say that you've tried murder…" Celia says, giving them a glance.

"Yes." Anna says with a nod.

"Well…" Muffy begins. "I say, if you can't get the boys away from Karrie, get Karrie away from the boys!"

"But how?" Lumina asks, now wiping the fish slime from her hands with a napkin.

"Simple." Muffy replies. "I have a little something locked away in the Inn basement just in case something like this happened…"

"Really?" the girls chorus, not bothering to ask any questions at the moment.

"Yep." Muffy says, smiling. "Of course, I mean the Inner Inn. You'll need this key to get into the room."

She hands a key to the nearest girl, being Lumina.

"I didn't even know the Inn had a basement…" Kate says in mild awe.

"You just have to ask Tim about it, he'll know what you're talking about." Celia states. "Now, in the meantime… A good temporary way to keep the guys away from Karrie is to blindfold them quickly and then herd them from her while they're stunned. We had to do it with Marlin once when he saw Muffy after first moving in."

"And that's exactly why we live in opposite ends of the town, too." Muffy points out.

"…Eh, you learn something new every day." Kate says. She then smiles and nods in thanks. "Thank you Muffy, Celia. I'm glad you're not evil anymore."

"Yes, thank you so much!" Lumina says, standing up with a smile.

"Oh, you're welcome." Celia says, waving it off. Muffy nods and does so too. Ricca stands up along with the rest of them, and they slowly begin to walk.

"…Say, I have a good idea." She begins. "Why don't we have a couple of the guys go down and pick the… whatever it is up? That way we don't have as many to keep an eye on…"

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!" Anna says. "I guess just two would be enough, right?"

"Yeah, probably," Kate agrees, giving it a shrug. "And this way we can all stay here, and make sure they don't try something."

"Then that's what we're doing?" Lumina inquires.

"Yep," Ricca nods. "Now let's get it done…"

After the girls had all left the Inn, their quick chatter long-since-distant, Celia looks to Muffy questioningly.

"Don't you think it's dangerous?" she asks. "Letting them get it? Who knows what it can do…"

"Don't worry." Muffy reassures her. "They should be safe as long as they're careful."

"But… imagine how strong it must be now…" Celia pursues. "By now it should be at its strongest point, there may be no stopping it if-"

"Those children are in the prime of their life, too." Muffy replies, adding a sigh after a moment. "If anyone can stop it, it's them. And if not… maybe it'll come here and take out Nami in the meantime. Either way, we have to keep it very quiet…"

Celia smirks, nodding in understanding of this new, hidden plan. Apparently, there was still some speck of evil left within those two. Their bizarre and likely unhealthy desire for Jack was going to give them this one last surge, this last effort, this last, scant opportunity to get what they've been yearning for all of this time. They raise their glasses (of water, since it wasn't evening yet) and clink them together with their briefly renewed hope.

"Vengeance…"