Episode 8: Fluffytown Showdown

Knock. Knock.

"Huh?" I awoke with a start to what sounded like a battering ram against my door.

Are the Dogstar already here? I thought to myself as I ducked low and crawled to the door. Inching up ever so slightly so that I could look through the peephole, I saw the source of the noise and froze.

Nope. Worse than the Dogstar.

"I know you're in there, Edgar!" bellowed Big Eddie. "Let me in now and I might not tear up your next performance evaluation!" Knowing he would splinter the door open at its hinges if I failed to comply, I unlocked the door, turned the knob, and immediately jumped back about three feet. My boss stood at the doorway, standing nearly as tall and as wide as the frame, a stern look on his face.

"Where is it?" he growled.

"Why?" I said, then started holding my breath again.

"Because I asked you." Big Eddie ducked his head and entered the room. A stray splinter of wood tore his SPOOK uniform, but he regarded the annoyance as if a fly had landed on him, shrugging it off and coming further into the room. "Do you think playing games with me is fun, Edgar? Do you even understand what any of this is about?"

"I...I do, sir." I gestured him to the table in the corner, even though I doubted he could sit in either of the two accompanying chairs without breaking them. He tried anyway. "I was told not to divulge the location of the idol to anyone at SPOOK until I knew what they planned to do with it."

Nodding sternly, Big Eddie pantomimed writing on a piece of paper. "Initiative," he said to himself. "Courage. And absolute stupidity." He glared over at me. "Did it occur to you that your superiors might be able to handle this situation better than you can?" He stabbed a finger out the window. "There is a fleet of Dogstar ships hidden by the lunar eclipse that is taking place right now. At one word, they could decimate everyone on this planet before the Galactic Nations could raise a finger. Tell me, Edgar, do you think their punishment will matter to us if we're all dead?" I backed away slightly as his forehead grew red. "And tell me this, Edgar...does the thought of handing them the idol seem so bad now?"

Wow, I thought to myself. For a giant moose, he sure knows how to make someone feel small. "The thought had occurred to me..."

"Then why didn't you follow it?" Big Eddie stood up, knocking over my chair.

"Because," I said, standing up straight and managing to reach up to his neck in height, "someone has to stand up to the Dogstar. We can delay their invasion of this planet by handing them the idol, but then they'll be just as unstoppable when they return. Which they will."

"And how do you propose to stop the Dogstar?" Big Eddie roared, picking up my sketch from the desk. "With a bunch of stick figures?" He crumpled up the sketch and threw it against the wall.

"No," I said, smiling despite myself. "You'll see."

"I'll see?" Big Eddie slouched forward. "I'll see?"

The phone rang. I picked it up.

"Yo, Edgar." It was K.K. Slider. "We got a hot tip at the station. A bunch of unrulies just jacked the next train headed this way."

"Wonderful."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Get ready, man, this is it."

"Right." I replaced the receiver and looked over at my boss. "They're coming. So the answer is yes. You will see."


"Is it true?" Rei shouted, her voice breaking as she ran up to greet me.

"Yes," I replied shortly. "You'd better hide." I looked over to Tom, whose ears were raised in alert. "Both of you."

Tom nodded. "What are you going to do, Edgar?"

"I'm going to show everyone the real might of the Dogstar Empire." I flashed a smile, which made both of them look even more perturbed.

"Well, I hope it works..." Tom chuckled nervously. "By the way, nice to meet you, Mr..."

"Annoyed," Big Eddie replied tersely.

"Gotcha." Tom's smile faded. "Let's get somewhere safe," he muttered to Rei, and took off running.

"Good luck, Edgar!" Rei said as she followed him.

"Who's she?" Big Eddie inquired.

"Oh, just a girl I like," I replied, watching her go with a pit forming in my stomach.

"Oh." Big Eddie chuckled. "I feel sorry for her."

Ignoring the comment, I instead joined K.K. and Copper at the train platform. The residents of Fluffytown, having heard the news, turned out to form a line behind us. Even Tortimer was out, but he seemed to be having trouble staying awake. I held up a hand to urge them back, but they stayed within view of the platform as the train slowly came in. The brakes screeched and sparks flew from the undercarriage as the cars passed by, flashing by too quickly to notice at first, but then tapering off and slowly coming to a halt.

"We've got some backup if you need it," K.K. muttered. "Booker's over by the post office. He may not seem like it, but he's a good shot with the stun blaster."

Nodding, I replied, "Hopefully it won't come to that." The train was still in the process of stopping, a routine procedure that seemed to last an eternity. The train is mocking me. Stupid train...

Just as I completed my thought, steam issued from the train with a hiss and it came to a complete stop.

"Stay cool, man." That was K.K.

As the doors opened, I took two steps forward. Dogstar soldiers, their ears sticking out through round-top helmets, shuffled down the platform, guns raised. They formed a circle around the four of us, isolating us from the rest of the townspeople. The next wave fell into line with the last.

"Second wave!" came a voice from inside the train. "Start searching the houses!"

"You locked your door, right?" Big Eddie muttered. I was about to reply, but the leader stepped out and stood on the platform over me. I looked at him and gasped.

"You!" I said, pointing an exasperated finger.

"Yes, me!" Rover said, grinning. "Me want you to give idol to us now. Save townspeople trouble. Is that too slow for you?"

"You tell me," K.K. said, stepping forward with me. "Selling out both sides isn't too smart, man. You sure you wanna scramble with Neffy like that?"

Rover bristled. "Lord Nefarious' affairs are none of your concern! And do NOT call him--"

"Neffy?" I said, trying not to chuckle. "That's pretty cute. Is he your leader?"

Rover growled.

"Neffy, Neffy, Neffy!" I danced around in my place. "Neffy Neffy boo boo!"

"Listen, punk!" Rover drew out his stun blaster, a silver ray gun with spirals running around the shaft, and aimed it at me. "One more word out of you and the next thing you'll remember will be a Dogstar cell. After that, you'll remember how to count to three again. Capisce?"

I shrugged in reply.

"I'm not talking to you, anyway." Rover cocked his head at Big Eddie. "He's your superior. He's the one I talk to."

I shrugged in reply.

"All right, then," Rover said, his tone calmer as he faced Big Eddie with the blaster, "why don't you tell me where the idol is." Holding my breath, I gazed over at Big Eddie, awaiting his reply.

"I dunno," he said, shrugging. "Ask him, he's the one who found it."

Yes! I felt like letting out a huge sigh of relief. Rover's eyes narrowed; it was the first time I'd ever seen them do that. "Very well, Edgar," Rover said slowly, leveling the gun on me again, "why don't you tell me where it is?"

"Why?" I replied. "So you can invade our planet twenty years from now instead of right now?" Rover looked down at the gun, as if it were malfunctioned, and then back at me. "Oh, I'm sure the gun's working just fine," I continued, "I'm the one that's malfunctioned, I suppose, because I'm not moving."

Rover's eyes bulged red as he suppressed a growl. "You...little...urgh! Fine!" Rover took one step toward me and one finger hovered over a switch on his blaster. He was close enough to me that I could see the words on the blaster: "Stun" and "Kill." "See if you're so brave after this!"

Rover switched the weapon to "Kill"and brought it up to my temple. For a brief moment, I felt a twinge of fear. As if I were riding a roller coaster, I anticipated the time when I would be able to get off, and let go of my fear.

"Is that it?" I said, cracking another smile.

"Edgar!" Big Eddie's shout came from behind me, but I didn't dare to look over to him. "Enough of this! Just give it to him!" His nerves were beginning to get the best of him.

"I don't know, sir," I replied nonchalantly, "somehow I doubt this is the Dogstar Empire you negotiated with." I winked. "Maybe there was some kind of mistake?"

Rover paused, his grip on the weapon faltering as he looked over to Big Eddie.

"It's your move, boss," I said. Whatever happened next, I wished for a brief second that I could see Rei again. Knowing she was safe made me feel a lot better, though. I moved her from my mind as Big Eddie snorted where he stood, ruminating over what I'd said. Come on, boss...come on, boss...

"Fine," Big Eddie said. "Do whatever you want to him. He's obviously an idiot."

Oh, thanks.

"Huh?" Rover dropped his weapon for a split second. A split second later, he was lying on the ground three feet away. He scrambled for his blaster, only to see it smashed beneath Big Eddie's hoof, and looked up at my boss with a pale face.

"What can I say?" Big Eddie shrugged. "Even idiots can convince me sometimes." As he finished this thought, a stun bolt struck him in the back. Flinching slightly, he spun and knocked the source of the blast into the air with his fist. I looked up to see stun bolts lancing through the air from above, knocking out Dogstar soldiers as they ran from the houses to fire back. Good ol' Booker. K.K. and Copper had drawn their own stun blasters and joined the fray. Watching the battle unfold, I slowly realizing that I was right in the middle of it with no weapon to speak of. I'm not certain which penetrated first: the silent command to run and hide or the stun bolt that hit me in the back and sent me to the ground, gasping for air as my entire body tingled.

I tried my legs, hoping to rise up. Nothing. Next came my arms. Nothing. All I could do was look up with a contorted face as the battle raged on, and I couldn't even do that very well. I saw Big Eddie unearth a tree and swing it at three Dogstar soldiers. As he completed his swing, another stun bolt struck him and he dropped the tree trunk, hitting himself in the head and knocking him down with a thud that I barely felt in my condition. After that, everything was a hallucination. I started dreaming that cats with swords had appeared and were turning the battle around. Then, this howl pierced the sky and my ears hurt. After that, I thought I saw Rei emerge, and wondered what she was doing there. I felt pathetic being sprawled out on the ground while she was in danger, so I tried to move my arms again, but they faltered and black consumed my vision.


When I came to, the battle for Fluffytown was over.

My vision was blurry, but it slowly recovered as I rose to my knees. From what I could see, nothing was on fire, so I took that as encouragement.

"Yo, Edgar!" K.K. came up and helped me to my feet. "Mr. Nerves of Steel. Man, that was tight!"

"Thanks," I stammered, trying not to vomit.

"Should I give you the good news or bad news first?" Feeling my stomach freeze, I managed to sputter, "good news."

"Well, you can see the good news all around you," K.K. said, loosening his grip as I found I could stand on my own. "The Dogstar are out of Fluffytown, pretty much everyone is safe, and the idol was still in your house. Actually, there's a weird thing about that...there was a soldier unconscious outside of your house, and no one claimed to have taken him down..."

"Bad news?"

"Hoo boy..." K.K. turned away and the pit in my stomach widened. "Rei's gone, man."

"What?" I felt the gasp in my throat long before it came out.

"She told 'em she was a fugitive. They took her and ran with the train. Said it would be worth it if—hey, wait!" I ignored his shout, tearing away toward the train station. I faltered halfway there and K.K. caught up to me.

"Hold up, Edgar." K.K. put his arm on my slouching shoulder. "There's nothing we can do yet. The next train won't arrive until tomorrow. Big Eddie's still out. Just take it easy for now. We'll figure all this out later."

"Sure," I said, not even looking at him.

"Whatever Rei had in mind, we just have to keep cool. It may not feel like it," he finished, walking away, "but we totally won today."

"Yeah," I said, allowing myself to curl my lips upward just a little. All around me, the people of Fluffytown resumed work. While they shuffled around me, I kept my gaze to the north, where the train station was.

I'm coming, Rei.