Dale, Rick and April had spend a very uncomfortable night in the icy cells they were imprisoned in. It was dark and cold and they huddled together in a corner for warmth. They didn't receive any food or water and nobody came to check on them.

"They'll be out looking for Flash," Dale said. "He's the one Ming wants. However, if he really escaped..."

"Then he'll bring back help!" April replied immediately.

Yes, he would certainly try to do that. But Dale knew how dangerous Ming was. He would try to get to Flash by using Dale and the kids, she was sure of it. She hugged them both. Rick was visibly scared. April didn't show her fear at all, but Dale knew she was very much like Flash in this regard. When Flash and Dale had first met, Flash had been very charming and outgoing and always cracking jokes. It had taken her a while to realize that he tended to hide his deeper emotions under his cheerful, funny exterior.

"We do need a plan," Dale told her kids. It was only a matter of time until Ming would send for them and she at least needed the kids to be out of the way. She would deal with Ming, she had no choice but to deal with him. But she vowed to herself that he would never lay a hand on her kids.

"Your father and I dealt with those ice robots before," she said. "They're pretty much just robots, following orders and so on. They have a basic sense of what to do and not to do, but that's about it. There are other versions of them that are a bit more skilled and some, like Garax, are even human-like in their thinking. If those basic ice robots come in here to take us to Ming, we need to distract them and escape."

"Sure, we can take them out," April agreed.

"No taking out," Dale warned. "Only if you have to. If you start trouble, there will be more and more of them and we can't fight a whole army. Let them think we're helpless - they'll lower their guard a bit and we can make a run for it." Or at least Rick and April could. Dale had no illusions about it. Not all three of them could escape.

"You could pretend you're sick - or hungry and exhausted," Rick suggested. "They might see you as a bigger threat than April and me, so if you're seemingly down and out..."

"We'll overpower them and make a run for it!" April exclaimed. She was worried sick - and even more, she felt incredibly guilty for suggesting this family trip in the first place. She needed to do everything in her power to make it okay again.

A few hours later, they've heard the heavy steps of the ice robots coming closer. When they arrived at the cell, Dale was lying on the floor, seemingly unconcious. April and Rick sat next to her, trying to wake her, crying.

"Please Mom, wake up!" Rick cried, putting as much worry in his voice as he could.

"She needs medical care!" April said to the ice robots. "Please, she fainted - we're all hungry and thirsty and exhausted! Please help us!"

"We must bring the Earth woman to Emperor Ming," one of the ice robots stated in his monotone voice.
"He'll decide what to do," another one agreed.

The door was opened but two robots were still standing guard there. Two more moved closer to the three prisoners. Suddenly, Rick and April jumped up, tackling one of them, while Dale kicked the other one to the ground.

"Grab the weapon!" she shouted.

Rick took the laser gun one of the ice robots had lost and aimed with shaking hands at the two robots at the door. It all happened very fast. They were shooting too and Dale dragged April down with her. The shots went right over their heads. Rick missed a few times but finally got one of them. Dale then took the weapon and fired at the remaining ice robot before he could fire at them again. They ran to the door, but suddenly, more ice robots appeared. Dale started firing. Rick and April looked around for more guns but none were within their reach. Dale, who was shielding her children, got hit and stumbled.

"Mom!" Rick exclaimed in horror.

"Run, you two! Run, you need to run!" Dale yelled at them. She wasn't critically injured. She would survive this. This would be nothing compared to what Ming had in store for her.

"No, I won't leave you behind, Mom!" Rick cried, ready to take on all the ice robots at once to save his mother.
April wanted to join him but she could see that there were too many ice robots. They had Dale surrounded by now. And they were already closing in at Rick. A few shots barely missed him. Soon all three of them would be prisoners again. And that would help nobody.

"Rick, we need to go!" she cried, hoping she was making the right call. Grabbing her brother by the arm, she dragged him away with her while Dale did her best to keep the ice robots focused on her.

"Are you crazy, we can't leave Mom!" Rick protested, struggeling to get free so he could return to save his mother.

"We won't, we just need to get help!" April hissed, not letting go of him. "Or weapons! Or... something! Or we have to find Dad! But we can't get help if we're all prisoners again!"

Rick was still protesting but he wasn't struggeling anymore. Before April could drag him around the corner, he looked back one last time. He saw Dale getting beat up and held down by her attackers. And then he followed his sister along through the icy corridors with a very heavy heart.

Meanwhile, Amy was sitting in a car with a nice elderly couple who had agreed to take her half way.

"But we're not going past your friends' house," the lady said. "You need to find another ride for the rest of the way."

"That's all right," Amy said. "I'm very thankful that you're taking me half way."

They were leaving the city behind. Her heart was beating fast. Soon she would meet Mandrake the Magician. What kind of answers would she get?

Mandrake, however, had some more urgent problems right now, for Ming's roboships had been waiting for Flash's return. Both Mandrake and Lothar learned why Flash was one of the best space pilots of the world. Mandrake felt a little bit sick after several loopings and risky maneuvers later.

"Are you okay?" Lothar asked, watching his old friend who looked very pale indeed.

"I will be," Mandrake assured him. "I'm just not used to being upside down that much."

"I can't shake them," Flash groaned. He already had taken out several of them, but they kept coming at them from all directions.

"Maybe a little bit of an illusion will help," Mandrake offered.

"No offense, but even if the ice robots don't see us, their scanners would pick us up," Flash replied, shooting at the enemy ships and at the same time, trying to avoid getting shot at.

"That's why I'm the best at what I do," Mandrake replied with a grin. "I'll confuse them by us not showing up on their scanners either. Well... we do show up, but they will just see each other."

"Maybe you can make them see each other as targets," Lothar suggested. If they took out each other, then there would be less enemies to fight for them.

"I could, but it requires a bit of concentration," Mandrake said. "Please no more flying upside down, Flash."

"I'll try," Flash replied. He wasn't sure if he trusted magic or not. Sure, he trusted Mandrake well enough, but he usually only trusted the things he could see. Illusions and magic tricks were not really his thing.

Mandrake closed his eyes and pictured the enemy ships, their icy pilots and the screens before them, displaying all the ships, including the target they were hunting down. Slowly, he first made their own ship invisible and then repeated it by deleting the little blinking dot on the screen. Lastly, he turned some of the other enemy dots into little red blinking target dots. Soon enough, the ice robots were shooting at each other.

"It's working!" Lothar cheered.

"Yeah, and we're in their line of fire!" Flash said, ducking away under them in hopes of not getting hit by their blasts.

"I'm sorry..." Breathing hard, Mandrake opened his eyes again. "I can't hold it any longer..."

"Doesn't matter, more than half of them took themselves out," Flash grinned, moving fast in the direction of Ming City. "That's more than enough and all I needed. Let's go!"

April and Rick had been wandering around icy corridors for forever. They had found some food in an upstairs room but were now all the way downstairs again for they felt not really safe in the upper levels. There were much more ice robots there, clearly on the lookout of them.

"We need to steal a ship," April suggested while they were hiding behind massive blocks of ice, waiting for some ice robots to walk by.
Rick looked at her like she was crazy. "And then what?" he asked. "I bet those ships are well guarded. We'll get killed trying to steal one! And even if we could manage - they would chase us and then we would get killed. Besides, none of us are pilots - this is crazy!"

April sighed. Getting the ship was the problem - flying it she thought she could maybe manage. On the other hand, if they were shot at - she wasn't sure if she could outfly them then.

"Well, what's your idea then?" she asked her brother. "We can't keep stumbling around here, we've got to do something!"

"Let's go see if we can find Mom!" Rick said. "She'll know what to do!"

"That's not safe," April objected.

"Nothing here is safe," Rick replied. Suddenly, he noticed something behind him. It was a tiny furry creature, sitting in the shadows, shaking with fear. "Hey - and who are you, little guy?"

His friendly tone made the little creature a bit calmer. He looked at Rick and April with his big eyes.

"Stop playing with animals, Rick," April groaned. "Now is really not the time."

"He's frightened," Rick said. "Just like we are."

The little guy suddenly jumped onto Rick's shoulders and pressed his cold fuzzy fur to the boy's cheek. Rick gently touched him and he started to make chirping noises.

April took a closer look. "That's a zuffoid!" she exclaimed. "I've read about them in a book about extinct creatures from outer space. They're from Mongo but are supposedly extinct!"

"He looks real to me," Rick said. "But if they're believed to be extinct, I'm sure not many of his kind are around anymore. Are you alone and lost too, little guy?"

The zuffoid snuggled closer and seemed to like Rick a lot.

"I'll take him with me," the boy decided. "I'll call him... Fuzzy. Or... no, Zuffy. Yeah, that sounds cute. Zuffy he is."

"Let's hope he can survive in our climate if he is used to these temperatures here," April said. She kind of found the little zuffoid cute too but she also knew there were more pressing matters to be dealt with than whether or not Rick should get himself a pet.

The ice robots were gone now and the siblings and their little friend made their way through the endless maze of icy corridors until, by chance, they happened to find the cell again they had been imprisoned in. But - it was empty. Dale was nowhere to be found!

Note: After my rewatch, I realized the mansion was too far from the city for Amy to reach it by foot. So here she gets taken half way and the other half she will walk, which will take the rest of the day. So that also gives the others plenty of time to return from Mongo.

Note: I don't mind Zuffy, since he never does anything, he usually just sits on Kshin's shoulders. He's not important for the story but since he's an original character, I figured I would mention him here.