"Cheer up, guys."

Pluto, Fifi and Figaro were all feeling very tired and depressed. They had been following their new leader Cy-Toad, short for Cyber-Toad, and tracking down some giant footprints with her. They were the same footprints that they discovered two nights. They belonged to giant golems, who were part of the Earth Army led by Cy-Toad's arch enemy, Lady Brenda of the Earth.

Cy-Toad and the pets had been doing nothing except follow those footprints for the last two days. All of them had hoped they would find something like Brenda's hidden castle or one of her secret lairs or camp bases if she had any, but they had no success. All they achieved for the last two days was tracking down endless golem footprints which led them to nowhere and now they were all very tired and hungry.

"I know we haven't found Brenda or her Earth Soldiers yet," Cy-Toad said to the pets as she cooked some meat on a rotating spit above the little fire, "but these footprints are still better than no clue at all. I promised you guys that I would get you back to your owners and I haven't broken that promise and I still don't intend to."

Then she served the pets a bit of the meat she cooked and had some herself. They all felt better eating, like always.

Then something caught Pluto's ears and made him turned around. He didn't even finish the meat that was given to him, but it wasn't because of Cy-Toad's cooking. In fact, she was a great cook and the pets always enjoyed her cooking. Pluto looked ahead and started to growled. Fifi joined him, even leaving her portion of food.

"What do you guys hear?" Cy-Toad asked the dogs. She used her red eye to scan the direction that the dogs were barking at. All she could see was some trees, rocks and smoke. Smoke? She zoomed her eye in forward on the smoke. It didn't look like BBQ smoke, but the type of smoke that a village is under attack. Then she and the pets could hear screaming.

"Come on, troops," Cy-Toad said. "There's a village that needs saving."

Then the pets followed her, barking and meowing loudly.

"Guys!" she snapped. "Remember what I told you three about the element of surprise?"

The pets went silent after that.

"That's better," Cy-Toad said quietly as she could.

The cries for help getting louder and louder helped Cy-Toad and the pets find the village. When they approached it, they were shocked at what they saw: the Earth Soldiers attacking the village, destroying the huts, were capturing the fighters in metal nets while chaining up the non-fighters and eating and drinking all their food and water.

The dogs growled and Figaro hissed as they marched forward, but Cy-Toad hoped in front of them and stopped them.

"I'm assuming you guys have a plan of attack?" Cy-Toad asked. "As you're all excited to go down there."

Pluto excitedly nodded and barked.

"That's great, Pluto," Cy-Tod said sarcastically. "Just run there and do what?"

Pluto's excited face dropped and looked like out of ideas.

"Just as I thought." Then Cy-Toad turned to Fifi and Figaro. "You guys have any ideas?"

Fifi barked.

"Ah, the stereotypical femme fatale trick?" Cy-Toad asked. "That would be a good idea if that trick would work. It won't work because none of us are attractive to those Earth Monsters at all."

Then Figaro meowed.

"You could run up a tree?" Cy-Toad asked. "To hide from danger or distract the Earth monsters?"

Figaro didn't make any noise to reply at all. He just ran to the nearest tree and climbed it. When he finished climbing, he meowed a lot and loudly.

Cy-Toad and the dogs snickered until she told them to shush.

"They are coming," she whispered to the dogs. "Come on, let's hide." Then she smiled at Figaro and gave him a metal thumb up. "Well done, Figaro. Keep up the good work."

Figaro nodded and continued to do his loud and long meowing while Cy-Toad and the dogs hid behind some bushes. They didn't have to wait for very long before golems, grass monsters and moving trees passed the bushes and moved to the tree that Figaro was pretending to be stuck on.

"Aww, poor kitty stuck up in a tree," one golem said. "Whatever shall we do?"

"How about we rescue it and bring back down to the ground?" a grass monster asked.

"So it can join us and our friends?" a moving tree asked.

"And help Lady Brenda take over the world?" the golem asked.

"Good idea!" the three of them cried together.

Figaro just scoffed at them until he saw one of them getting ready to punch the tree down. Then the tree fell and the small cat fell with it and landed in one of the golem's hands.

"A new friend!" a grass monster cried.

"The more, the merrier," said the golem who held Figaro. "Come on, kitty. Let's go and introduce you to your new forever friends."

The Earth Soldiers started to walk away.

"Hey!"

Then they froze as they looked around to see who said that. They couldn't so they marched on. Figaro knew that was Cy-Toad.

"Hey! I'm talking to you morons!"

The Earth Soldiers froze again.

"Who said that?" demanded the golem who held Figaro.

"This bush!" Cy-Toad cried as she and the dogs shook themselves to make the bush move. Then they went still when they saw the Earth Soldiers approach them.

"Go and dig the holes now, guys," Cy-Toad said to the dogs.

The dogs quietly

"Who are you?" a grass monster demanded.

"Just a bush who wants to join your army. If you're happy to have a small cat, you'll be happy to have me."

"Why would Lady Brenda want a soldier that's not tall or strong or anything a good soldier needs to be?" a tree monster asked.

"So being smart and hiding things to surprise the enemy aren't good qualities to be soldiers?"

The Earth Soldiers thought about it and decided it was worth giving the bush a try.

"Well, show us what you can do now and," said the golem holding Figaro, "and we'll recruit you at once."

"Well, I can do this!"

Nothing happened.

"What? Is that it?"

Then suddenly a figure wearing a scary mask jumped in front of the Earth Soldiers. They screamed and started to run and fall into the large hole that Cy-Toad told Pluto and Fifi to dig up. Cy-Toad took her mask off and grabbed Figaro before he joined the army in the hole.

Cy-Toad and the pets looked down at the hole which was deep enough to be a very deep water well. It was so large and deep that the Earth Soldiers was struggling to climb out, no matter how hard they tried.

"It was fun playing with you guys," Cy-Toad said, "but playtime is over and now we have a village to save. Come on, guys."

Then she and the pets left, leaving the Earth Soldiers struggling to climb out.