This chapter is for Flowerstar, who wanted to see the beginning bit early on. It took a while to get something I could say, so if you're mad the whole chapter took so long, go ahead and blame her. XD Kidding, kidding, I'm responsible for my own dang self.

Nawrocki didn't bother with formalities like the meeting room. Instead he grabbed the Count in his vines and dragged him to the meeting room. Not that Count Bleck was putting up a struggle or anything, but Nawrocki was just not paying attention and wanted to move everyone as fast as possible. He tossed Count Bleck into the lab, which was surprisingly empty of Machine Mades, and slammed the door. Again, he slammed it so hard it bounced open again and he had to slam it gently. Count Bleck tried the knob and found it locked. He could teleport out of this room, but decided against it for the time being.

It was tranquil inside, but he could hear the turmoil outside. Smashes, crashes, and all sounds associated with a cataclysmic struggle hit the wall like a ton of cement and only the most powerful of the tumult made it though the castle walls and to Count Bleck's ears. Which is a fancy way of saying, it was quieter inside than you'd expect.

He looked around. He had forgotten how enormous the room was when it was empty., the ceiling towering above and the far wall a jog away. The factory equipment was gone. The monsters were gone. Everything from the past couple of days was gone, except for Nawrocki's tiny potion station, sans curtains.

He recognized the potion that Nawrocki had been mixing, sitting on a table against the wall near the door. He leaned over it and wafted the smell to his face. "Pepperment!" he said, surprised. He examined the color and texture and had to admit, in spite of everything that happened, that Nawrocki did make a good potion.

The door opened again and Nawrocki was shoving O'Chunks into the room. "A'right, yeh squishy li'l brute, I'm movin', I'm movin'…"

O'Chunks looked ill-prepared for battle. His face betrayed the fact that he had been sleeping. Also, he was still in his pajamas. Warrior, manly pajamas, but pajamas nonetheless. With a nightcap.

O'Chunks saw the Count grinning at the sight of him.

"Don't yeh look at meh that way," O'Chunks said defensively. "True, a good warrior'd sleep in 'is armor, so to be ready teh go inta battle at the sound o' the horn, but when they start getting' up there in years, well, it ain't so good fer the back, yeh know?"

Count Bleck nodded. "Oh, I know, I know," he said. "In fact, Count Bleck has found the need to remove his monocle before going to bed." He tapped his staff against the ground twice.

Nawrocki opened the door again and called out, "Où es-tu, Bleck? Oh, there you are. Écouter, je ne trouves pas Dimentio or M. L." (Listen, I can't find…)

"So what do you want me to do about it?" asked Count Bleck.

"Tu es leur Count Bleck, n'est pas?" (You are their Count Bleck, isn't it so?)

"Je ne suis pas une carte. Ou une boussole." (I'm not a map. Or a compass.)

"Aha! Tu es parle Français, après tout!" (You speak French after all!) Nawrocki crossed his arm-leaves triumphantly, as if he'd had some sort of victory.

O'Chunks looked back and forth between the two. "Eh? Whassis? Since when do you speak all fancy like this?"

"Since about September of '07," said Count Bleck somewhat sarcastically.

"Mais tu parles!" (But you speak!) Nawrocki shook his head. "Si tu veux. Send out the machine mades." (Whatever.)

"Non," said Count Bleck. "I'm not sending out a merciless army to attack someone for no good reason."

"Pardon?" Nawrocki crawled over to Count Bleck and raised his head so they were face to face. "Répétez, si vous plait?"

The Count would not be intimidated, but Nawrocki continued anyway.

"A good reason," said Nawrocki darkly, "is because I order you. You can't break the spell. You agreed."

"Quand même," said Count Bleck. "Qu'est-ce que—"

The door was slammed open again, this time by Dimentio. He was standing there darkly, about four feet off the ground, glaring at Nawrocki.

"I don't think that door can take much more punishment," said Count Bleck.

"I believe I've been summoned," said Dimentio. "I brought the Green Thunder."

Mr. L bounded into the room, landed cleanly on his feet, and held his arms out to form a large L.

"Very nice, very nice," said Dimentio. "It took you that long to come up with something we've already seen you do?"

"Shut up," said Mr. L. "I'm going back to the basics."

"Be quiet, all of you!" Nawrocki hollered. "I've got a monster headache and I'm not in the mood. You are all still under my command, richtig? Well, I command you to go out there and stop the invasion."

A bolt of lightning struck the side of the building.

"What's that got teh do with workin' in yer factory?" asked O'Chunks, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Huh?" Nawrocki raised an eyebrow at him.

"O'Chunks raises a garbled point," said Dimentio. "You see, I believe the exact words of your deal with our count was… dear me, what was it?"

Count Bleck recalled, "I will allow the women to go free if the men stay behind to work in my factory under my command. Clear cut and dry."

"Not that easy," said Nawrocki. "Magic isn't subject to the same confusion and narrow-mindedness that machines are. When you made a deal with me, you agreed to obey the spirit of the law, not simply the letter."

"I ain't agreed to that!" O'Chunks bellowed, thumping his chest for dramatic effect.

"Then don't!" Nawrocki hollered back. He grinned, and then his face fell and he held his head. "Oooh… I don't have time for this…"

Another bolt of lighting hit the side of the castle, causing a large crack to split up the side.

"One more ought to do it," said Count Bleck.

Nawrocki was already crawling across the room to his closet. "Dispatch of the attackers," he said. "If you don't, then you had better die trying." With that, he slammed the door of the closet shut behind him.

"There's no two ways, is there?" said Count Bleck. "You either never, ever use the doors or else you slam and otherwise abuse them."

Another bolt of lighting hit the side of the building, and the battle outside poured in.

Every single Machine Made that the men had worked on seemed to be involved in the melee. They were hurling spears and bits and stones into the thick of it. A few of them were even using magic spells. From the inside, fireballs, lighting bolts, koopa shells, POW block reverb, snowballs, and even rubees were flying out.

"It's the women!" Mr. L cried triumphantly. "The women have come to help us!"

"Thank you, Mr. L, for pointing out something every one else has figured out," said Dimentio. He pulled up an energy ball and flung it into the crowd.

"Ow! Mimimimimimimi! Watch it!"

Mimi, in her giant Daddy-Long-Legs form, sprung out of the battle and landed on the floor in the laboratory. "Here we come to save the day!"

BZZOOORT!

Nastasia pushed her way out of the throng of Yaridoviches, the tinny cries of "Hail, Bleck!" following behind her. "Reporting for duty, Count," said Nastasia. She looked around, but did not see him.

"This ain't good," said Mr. L. "You see, we're under orders to kill the attackers or die trying."

"Orders you can't break," said Nastasia. "That's what we were afraid of."

"I for one have no qualms," said Dimentio, holding up an energy ball. "Which one of you would like to go first?"

Mimi hurled a rubee that hit Dimentio square in the forehead.

"Touchy, touchy," he murmured. He disappeared.

The robots were already filling the room, but keeping their distance from the girls. They had registered them as a Threat Level 1 and were conferring with each other as to the proper advance to make.

"Wait," said Mr. L. "Where's Tippi?"

Nastasia turned around. "Bringing up the rear, it would seem."

Meanwhile, Count Bleck was standing against the wall. "They've taken her from me," he said plainly.

Dimentio appeared next to the Count, his feet around eye level. "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, my Count."

"I'd rather die than hurt her.".

"You've proven that before." Dimentio waved his hand in front of Count Bleck's face.

Count Bleck looked up. "Yes, I see you."

"Use the power of the Prognosticus," said Dimentio. "Suck them all up."

"I thought you were on an anti-Prognosticus kick."

"I'm on an anti Bad-Things-Happening-To-Dimentio kick. I'm on an anti-Everything-and-Everybody-I-Will-Need-For-Future-Plans-Being-Destroyed-By-The-Power-Of-Pure-Chaos kick. I think this won't fill either of those qualifications, do you?"

"Well, as long as his majesty approves." Count Bleck spread out his arms and created a void. A small one, similar to the kind he used to use in battle, but it was frighteningly powerful. At once, the Machine Mades began flailing and trying to resist, but once you were trapped in the Void, you were done for.

Dimentio, grounding wire to the Count's newfound madness, quickly transported Nastasia and Mimi to the safety of Dimension D.

Count Bleck held his arms out wide. Mr. L and O'Chunks were a safe distance from the small void, but they both backed up even farther, looking on his horror.

It was then that Tippi came in through the door at last. "I'm back, Blumiere!" she cried out joyfully. Two feet into the room, she was sucked into it as well.

Count Bleck dropped his arms and right away the void began to close. "Timpani!" he screamed as he flew across the room. He grabbed her in his arms and held out his staff, creating a magic barrier around himself.

"Blumiere," she whispered, "I thought I would never see one of those again."

"I—well, I thought so as well."

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Yes. Yes, he has," said Dimentio from the far wall.

She sighed.

"When I'm not with you, I don't think straight," he said softly.

She sighed. "Blumiere, what am I going to do with you?"

"Just stay with me."

And we'll take a break on that note, because things are about to get a whole lot worse before they get any better.