Episode 11: Guardians of Fluffytown, part 1

Big Eddie's head hurt. To be precise, it hurt quite a bit. As the alarms sounded throughout Fluffytown, he stirred in his bed, groaning as he sought something to cover his ears with. The bandages wrapped around his chest from where he'd been burned strained as he sat up.

"Nurse," he slurred, "what is that awful noise?"

"It's the town alarm. Looks like the Dogstar are attacking again." The purple-toned pelican turned and glared at him. "An awful noise to go with your awful face. Wonderful."

Big Eddie snorted at the nurse's response. "I'll remember your attitude, Nurse..." he strained to read her badge. "Phyllis."

"Look, if you're going to be okay, I have to get going," Phyllis said, shedding her white jacket. "I got drafted for dive-bombing duty. They'd better pay me good money for this..." She left the door open behind her, making the alarm from outside even louder.

"Blasted woman," Big Eddie grumbled as he walked slowly to the door and shut it. "Left before I could ask her about getting some painkiller." Muttering curses to himself, he found the medicine cabinet and started rummaging through it for headache medicine.


From the roof of the police station, Booker and K.K. watched the Dogstar boats as they approached the beach. The townspeople assigned to cover that area were already in place, and the defenses had just been set.

"Can I ask you something?" Booker said. K.K. turned slowly and brought his ear up to indicate he was listening.

"Do you think we can beat them?"

K.K. set his paw against his chin. "Do you want the straight answer or the nice one?"

"That bad, huh?"

"No telling," K.K. said, letting loose a whistle as he counted the ships. "Looks like they brought a lot of firepower. They really want that idol."

Booker nodded, taking in the gravity of the situation. "Can I ask something else?"

"Is this one of those 'I might die, so I want to know all your secrets before I go' things?" K.K. shot back.

"No...it's just..." Booker raised his eyebrow. "Where'd you get that beret?"

"Oh, this?" K.K. pointed to the one on top of his head, angled slightly. "I just picked it up somewhere. Why? Does it make me look cool?"

"Not really..." The two dogs lapsed back into silence. The boats, seven lines on the edge of the horizon, took shape as they came closer to their landing spot. K.K. picked up his walkie-talkie and pushed a button.

"Air team, are you ready?"

"Check!" K.K. heard in two separate female voices.

"As long as no one has a slingshot, I'll be just fine," came the third, a male voice.

K.K. pushed the button again. "Beach team, are you ready?"

"Mannn...no one's ever totally ready, mannn...you just gotta go with the flow, mannn..."

"Ignore my shipmate, arr. We're ready to take anything on down here!" There was a pause. "I will get those cucumbers you promised, right?"

"Yes, Kapp'n," K.K. replied with a sigh. He pushed the button one last time. "Ground team, are you ready?" As he heard over a dozen voices sound in, the realization of how much was at stake finally hit him. They're not soldiers, he thought to himself, and yet here they are, fighting for everything.

"I hate this," he said out loud, at which Booker stared at him. "I know it's good strategy to choose the battlefield, if you can't choose the battle. Still, it feels like we're just letting them walk in." K.K. shook his head. "You'd better come through, Edgar..."


"Now letting off at Capitaltown center station," the conductor said over the microphone. "Oncoming passengers are advised that the food cabin is closed for the night. Also, cabin number five is closed due to unforeseen damage. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause..."

Stifling laughter, I stepped off the train in front of Olivia and Tangy onto a dimly lit platform beyond which the infrastructure of Capitaltown lay dormant. The silent skyscrapers jutting into the night looked all too creepy, and I turned back to my company. "Home sweet home," I said with a smile and then went for the stairs that led to the street.

"This is creepy," Tangy said, keeping her hand close to her sword. "I've been here on shopping trips before, but I've never walked around this late at night."

"Kinda funny, isn't it?" Olivia said softly. "In Fluffytown, I never felt unsafe walking around at night."

"Neither did I," I said wistfully.

"Oh, we know." As my face took on the complexion of a tomato, the two girls laughed and passed ahead of me with SPOOK's front gate just around the corner. I saw the laser beam swiveling at them just in time to manage a weak shout: "Hey, watch--"

The beam shot at thin air and dissipated.

"--out."

"No problem," Olivia said, shrugging. "We're stealthy. Kind of like cats. Because...well...we are cats."

"Right." I paused to scratch my chin. "I wonder when SPOOK installed sentry robots. I don't remember them being around..."

"There's three of them," Tangy whispered, emerging from around the corner. "Two of those beam shooters and a guard bot. Probably Dogstar technology."

"Dogstar this, Dogstar that," Olivia fumed. "I wonder how good their saunas are..."

"Why don't we go ask them?" I said, kicking myself for forgetting I had an ID card. "I'll just..." The realization hit me. "NOT use my ID card to get in."

Olivia blinked. "Why n-ohhh. It'll alert them." She scratched at her fur, smiling weakly. "My bad."

"Livvy..." Tangy was looking the fence over. "are you forgetting something?"

"Well, I'd almost forgotten that we could be on a vacation right now. Other than that, I don't think so..."

Tangy smacked her head. "We're feline. This is a fence. Feline? Fence?"

"Ohhhhh!" Olivia's eyes lit up as if a light had been turned on. "Grab my hand, Edgar," she commanded, snickering. I gave her my hand and instantly regretted it as she vaulted into the air, over the fence, and nearly snagged me on the high pole.

"There!" She dusted herself off while I struggled to get up. "Looks like the hard part is over."


"And here comes the hard part..." K.K. Slider muttered as the Dogstar boats slowed down on approach to the shore. "All right, aerial unit. Go for it."

From the roof of the Fluffytown museum, K.K. Slider's orders buzzed through the walkie-talkie. "Roger that," Pete said, then put away the unit. "Okay, girls, let's do it!"

"Wait," Pelly said, plucking out a stray feather, "can I do something first? Just incase one of us doesn't come back?"

"S-sure..." Pete blushed as Pelly pecked him on the cheek with her beak. An audible sigh was heard from just behind them.

"At this rate," Phyllis said, rolling her eyes, "I hope I don't come back."

"It'll be okay, Sis," Pelly said, patting her sister's shoulder, then turning toward the battle. "We'll look out for each other. Now let's do it."

The three pelicans took off into the sky, clutching their payload of leaves tightly.

"Remember, hold them like they're your own children!" Pete yelled as they approached the water.

"Oh, that's a great analogy," Phyllis retorted. "Since, you know, we're going to be dropping them and everything. Why don't we just-"

"Phyllis! Two o'clock!" Pelly shouted, and Phyllis banked sharply to avoid a burst of fire from the ground. She descended sharply, growling to herself.

"I just had these feathers trimmed!" she screamed, letting loose her payload. Before the Dogstar commanders could pull their vehicles back into the boats, they were crushed underneath the force of several falling couches. An armoire from Pete struck the first of the boats, tilting it back into the water and rupturing its hull.

"Yesss!" Pete hissed, but stopped when he saw more boats coming.

"We wasted too many bombs," Pelly said, dropping her payload.

"No," Phyllis replied, "There's just too many of them. We've gotta get more furniture."

Pelly looked back at the shore, where Dogstar soldiers were leaving the boats at a rapid rate and were preparing to advance on the town. "Can we get back in time?" she asked weakly.

"We'll have to try," Pete said, flapping his wings faster to get back to the museum roof. They reached it and immediately set to gathering leaves when a series of loud footsteps drew their attention away.

"I don't know about anyone else," Big Eddie said, looking up at them, "but I have a splitting headache. Is there anyone I can go beat up?"

Without hesitation, the three pelicans pointed toward the shore.

"Smashing," Big Eddie said, pounding his fists together. "Literally smashing. I'll be right back."


The lobby of SPOOK International was just as breathtaking as it was every time I entered, even after having worked there so long. The doors open up into a large circular room that breaks off into several corridors at the other end. At the entrance is a waiting room with several plush couches and all the best magazines. Passing one of the couches, I remembered how I'd been reprimanded for sleeping there once. At the center of the room was a giant desk at which a lone secretary sat while the pulse of the entire organization went through her. I saw Diane and my smile faded.

"Oh, hi Edgar!" She waved and then went back to filing her nails.

"Hi, Diane," I said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, is this about those expense accounts?" She rolled her eyes. "I SAID I was sorry--"
"No..." I looked around. "Isn't it kind of a bad time to be so cheerful?" She mimicked my glances, then stared back at me and shrugged.

"Out of the way," Olivia growled, pushing me aside. "Since your employee seems to be so inept at finding his way around, let's do this the direct way." She slammed her arms down on the desk. "Where's Lord Nefarious?"

"Lord Nefarious?" Diane blinked a couple of times. "Well, he's quite busy at the moment. Do you have an appointment?"

"Yes, we have an appointment," Olivia said slowly. "An appointment to kick his sorry little rump off this planet!"

"Hmmm..." Diane browsed the file. "Sorry, I don't see that under his 10:30. This says yoga."

"Diane..." I spoke her name as if piranhas were biting my legs off. "We don't have time for this."

"And I don't have time for your attitude, Edgar," Diane shot back, cocking her head to one side. "I'm only trying to SAVE you the trouble of getting TRAPPED in a bundle of red tape." She cocked her head to one side again. "Sorry, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

"So..." I cocked my head to the same side. "That way is a...?"

"Trap."

I nodded. "And that way..."

"Trap."

I pointed my index finger across the corridors.

"Trap, trap, trap."

"Crap!"

"Edgar!" Diane sat up sharply. "Watch your yap."

"We could use a map," Olivia said.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Everyone looked over at Tangy. "Sorry," she said.

"Why don't we just get going?" I offered, and was met with silent nods. We started off down the corridor that wasn't trapped. I took one step into the narrow hallway and nearly lost my foot to a guillotine blade that fell from the ceiling.

"Diane!" I yelled back at her.

"Well, sorry!" Diane rolled her eyes. "So I forgot...sue me. Just come back in one piece, okay?"

"I'll try." Stepping gingerly over the guillotine blade, I dashed down the corridor and reached for the up button on the elevator, only to smash Tangy's hand when she reached it first. She kept her glare on me as the elevator reached our floor.

"Hmmm..." I surveyed the buttons. "If I were an evil overlord, where would I keep my office?"

Olivia smashed the button for the rooftop with her paw.

"That's where," she said with a grin.

The ride to the top felt surreal. The slow whine of the cable as it carried us upward was matched only by the elevator music, which sounded to me like a bad rendition of K.K. Technopop.

"Hey, why does the elevator go up to the roof anyway?" Olivia asked. "That's kinda weird."

"It's SPOOK," I answered with a smile. "We're always watching the sky."

"Oh." Olivia crossed her arms, leaning back. "No wonder you're all such airheads." The elevator stopped with a sudden jerk and threw her against me. As the door opened, she removed herself from me and muttered, "Don't get any ideas" with a wry smile.

We stepped off the elevator and found ourselves staring at the back of a lone figure, wearing a black cape, looking out over the city. Olivia and Tangy quietly drew their sword and stepped quietly to each side as if to flank him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the figure said.

"Oh, really?" Olivia growled. "Why's that?"

"Few people who have challenged me have been in much condition to say anything about it." Lord Nefarious turned his head and I caught a flash of his eyepatch. "Ahh, the SPOOK agent. Come to save your precious little town?"

"Something like that," I replied, Monique's blade in my hand.

"Well, then," Nefarious said cordially, turning and pushing his cape away, "Let's not delay, hrm?"

Taking a deep breath, I charged.