"Okay, Fern, he's gone," said Muffy to the empty air. "You can stop being invisible now." The café patrons stared quizzically at the girl, wondering if this was some heretofore undocumented effect of coffee consumption on children.

She hoped for a poodle girl to appear or speak, but none did. "Fern? Are you there?" she called out. Suspicion crept into her heart. "All right, maybe you're not there," she said, disappointment and hurt in her voice. "Maybe you weren't there all along, you little b!tch."

Fuming, Muffy marched with clenched fists and bouncing braids from the Muffin Man shop all the way to Fern's house. She knocked—or rather, pounded—on the door, and was shortly greeted by Mrs. Walters. "Come in, Muffy," said the smiling poodle woman. "Fern went to the library, but she'll be back any minute."

"The library," grumbled Muffy as she stepped inside. "It figures. That good-for-nothing goldbricker, lounging in front of a book when she's supposed to be helping me."

She waited on the couch, her only companion a bitter frown, until Fern made her way back home. "Well, hello," she said sarcastically upon seeing a pile of books in the girl's arms. "I hope you had as much fun at the library as I had at the café, sitting all alone with Mr. Gelt."

"What are you talking about?" said Fern innocently. "I was there the whole time."

"Liar!" Muffy bellowed.

Fern laid her books on the coffee table in an orderly fashion, one by one. "I told you I wouldn't try to contact you in any way," she reminded her friend.

"You two-faced sneak," Muffy chided her. "Of course you wouldn't contact me. You couldn't contact me. You weren't there."

"I was there," said Fern with more earnestness. "I overheard the entire conversation. You asked for two hundred thousand, Gelt made a counter-offer of seventy-five thousand, you turned it down, and he threatened to fry you like a chicken."

"But you…" Muffy started to say, and Fern's words rang like an alarm bell in her head.

"I guess you're not used to working with invisible people," said Fern. "I understand."

Muffy lowered her face sheepishly. "I'm sorry for popping off like that. But…you could have said something, or tapped my shoulder, so I'd know."

The poodle girl spoke in a serious tone. "I was in a hurry to leave," she explained. "I didn't want Gelt to see me, or even suspect I was there. I stayed invisible until I was out of sight, then I ducked behind a bush, picked up some books I had hidden to make my mom think I'd been at the library, and became visible again."

Once she had processed Fern's story, Muffy inquired, "Why were you so afraid of being seen by Mr. Gelt?"

Fern took a seat on the cushion next to her. "Do you think I'm brave?" she asked.

"Yes," said Muffy, nodding.

The floppy-eared girl looked away in shame. "Well, I'm not," she admitted. "I'm like one of the kids on Spooky Poo—I like to solve a mystery when I get a chance, but when a monster comes after me, I run away."

"Don't talk like that," said Muffy, resting her hands on her friend's shoulders.

"Gelt frightens me," Fern continued. "He's mean, he's cruel…he's evil. I'll bet he kidnaps kids like us and puts them to work in a sweatshop. He hasn't hurt you yet, but only because you have something he wants. I can't stand and face him like you can, Muffy."

The monkey girl gaped incredulously. "But I was drawing on you for the courage to do that," she stated.

Fern shook her head. "Two years ago I didn't even have enough courage to speak up in class," she recalled. "I don't think even the Wizard of Oz could give me the courage to bargain with Gelt the way you did. It was your own courage all along, Muffy."

"But…but…"

"When I switched one of Mavis' towels for the dress, that was just being smart," said Fern. "I can't be your guard dog."

Muffy smiled faintly and took the girl by the hand. "If only the Wizard of Oz could make me as smart as you," she said wistfully.

Fern grinned with amusement. "Courage for me, brains for you…and a heart for Mr. Gelt."

Thursday passed by without incident. Neither Muffy nor her parents saw or heard a trace of the dreaded Gelt. Francine conversed frequently with Pokey by phone, but the man spoke noncommittally when it came to his planned visit and Mr. Frensky's challenge. Alan and Tegan visited Mansch at the hospital, and learned to their joy that his condition was steadily improving. Regarding the mysterious sphere and the designs of the unicorns, however, he could offer them no further light.

On Friday afternoon, Professor Frink hummed carelessly as his computerized driving assistant, Aida, piloted him and his car along the highway from Springfield to Elwood City. Those poor chumps, having to grip their steering wheels constantly, he thought, looking around at the other drivers. And all I have to do is sit here, with the sitting and the sitting and the continued sitting, while Aida takes care of everything. As soon as I've worked the kinks out of my teleportation device, I won't even have to sit—I'll just push a button, and wham! Prototype XJ7 shows promise, but prototype XJ6…oh, what an embarrassment. I put a male dog through XJ6, and out the other end came a female dog with a litter of pups!

"Good afternoon, Professor Frink," uttered the angelic, synthesized voice of Aida. "Perhaps I can interest you in a news broadcast about the arrival of Alliance diplomats in New York City."

"Mmm, sounds historic," said Frink idly. "Sure, I'll listen. Ga-hoyven."

The vehicle's sophisticated speaker system transmitted the voice of CNN reporter Wolf Blitzen. "So far the Hilton staff's handling of the special needs of the alien diplomats has been exemplary," he reported. "I'm told that the diplomat from Agallok requested a diet of live wasps, and the hotel staff was quick to comply. Some rooms have been specially heated to 150 degrees Farenheit, while others have been cooled to 30 below, in an attempt to simulate the conditions on the diplomats' home planets."

The news station abruptly fell silent. "What the glavin?" said the annoyed Frink.

After roughly a minute of dead air, Blitzen resumed his report. "The unicorns are our enemies," he said coldly. "We must kill them. We must kill them all."

To be continued