Yakko came to with a massive headache and a strange taste residing in his mouth. His first thought was the question of how many times he could get knocked out in one day. His second was that his broken leg had gone numb. It took him a while to realize that he wasn't touching the ground, but was instead curled up in a net that was slung over the tiger's shoulder. The tiger and his companion were deep in discussion as they walked along the bottom of the gorge.

'...shouldn't have used so much chloroform, Malice,' the hooded stranger said to the tiger. 'A dose like that could've killed him!'

'I still don't see why you won't just let me kill it,' the bipedal tiger growled. Yakko's heart jumped. He hoped the hooded stranger had control over his companion.

'The master wants him alive! He has to tell us where his siblings are, now that you have so cleverly lost their trail!'

'Your master doesn't scare me,' Malice said. 'He hired me to do a job, and I want to finish it!'

'Your job was to capture the Warners, and to remain in my master's employ until you were paid, not to kill them! You have already failed in that you only have one!' The hooded stranger pointed in Yakko's direction. The tiger growled slightly, but continued to walk in silence for the next hour.

Yakko's neck was sore, and his arms were beginning to cramp up. He twisted his head to the side slightly, not enough for Malice to notice the movement, but enough to make his neck feel better. As he looked to the sky, he lost himself in thought. What was going on? There were so many questions that had yet to be answered. Malice was obviously a hired bounty hunter, and he'd figured out who the hooded one was a half hour ago; the way he talked and the determined gait he walked with gave him away. That answered who, but not what and why. Yakko had a bad feeling about it, though, and he was thankful that his siblings hadn't been caught. He knew they could take care of themselves, but not even he could talk his way out of this one. He just hoped they'd find the note he'd left them.

The sides of the gorge began to get steadily closer together. He had no way of knowing where they were taking him, but he felt sure that he wasn't going to like it.

The tiger stopped, and Yakko heard the creaking of what sounded like very large doors. As his captors passed through them, he found out that they were, in fact, very large doors. He wondered why no one had noticed them before. He then assumed that there must have been a waterfall in front of them during the warmer months. Behind the doors was a poorly-lit large cavern, where he could barely make out an armada of guards lining the walls. They stood so still, he couldn't really tell if they were statues or not; until, of course, a handful of them surrounded the three visitors.

'Password?' One of them asked gruffly.

'Red-nosed nuisances,' the hooded figure answered. Yakko rolled his eyes. That cinched it. He definitely wasn't going to like this place. The tiger and the hooded stranger continued down several corridors, as Yakko attempted to memorize the way out. He heard another pair of doors open, and the blinding light from the room did nothing for his headache. He noticed several studio lights on the ceiling. Whoever decorated this place obviously had a flair for the dramatic. Suddenly, he was hauled over Malice's shoulder and flung painfully to the ground in front of the two kidnappers. He propped himself up on his elbows, and almost smiled at the surprise on the tiger's face. He obviously hadn't been expecting Yakko to be awake.

'You... pest, oh you little imp!' said a voice from behind him. Yakko tilted his head back.

'No. Me... Yakko. If you want Pesto, talk to the Goodfeathers,' Yakko said as he rolled onto his stomach. The silver-clad man had the biggest head Yakko had ever seen, and a face that looked slightly taken aback at Yakko's apparent lack of fear.

'Do you know who I am!' The big-headed man yelled. Yakko propped his head up on his hands. He knew the man's name; he'd heard the hooded figure mention it before they chloroformed him. But, of course, he wasn't going to make this conversation easy for the man who had had him imprisoned in a net for hours, and probably wasn't going to let him go any time soon.

'You mean to tell me,' he said, '...that you brought me all the way here from my comfy little spot in the snow just to play a guessing game?' The man's face went from pink to red.

'Okay, okay, if you really want me to guess,' he continued. 'Is it, ehhhhh, Tomato-face?' One of the guards that stood by the master snickered. The master shot him an angry look.

'I am Achilles Psyche!' The master announced.

'Does Achilles know that?' Yakko said calmly. That seemed to be too much for the beet-red master. Psyche angrily motioned to Malice; the tiger walked up and brought his foot down viciously hard on Yakko's broken leg. The boy yelped and shut his eyes, biting down on his fingers to keep from swearing.

'Where are the other two, Greyscale?' Psyche snapped at the hooded figure.

'We almost had two of them, but this one,' Greyscale said pointing at Yakko, '...pulled his brother back up the gorge.' Yakko shot him a murderous look.

'So where are they?'

'We lost their trail.'

'You IDIOTS!' Psyche bellowed. 'I give you a simple task and you can't even carry it out! But never you mind... we'll get this little joker to tell us where they are...' Psyche lowered his voice to a growl and knelt down in front of Yakko, '...so that I can finally, after years of waiting, have revenge.' Yakko looked back up at the man, now angry.

'Now it's your turn to guess, Tomato-head,' he said quietly, the resentment evident in his voice.

'No, you'll tell me. With the right incentive...' said Psyche. He motioned to a couple of the guards, who walked up on either side of Yakko, pointing their swords at his back.

'Not impressed,' Yakko said.

'MALICE, THROW HIM IN THE CELL!' Psyche yelled, straightening up, his patience at its end. Malice grabbed Yakko roughly by the scruff of his neck, and carried him out of the cavern. Yakko did nothing. He hung rigid in the tiger's grip as Malice walked down a corridor to the right of the large cavern, opened a steel door, and threw him inside. He hit the rough stone wall opposite, and fell to the floor without a peep. It wasn't until Malice had locked the door and walked back down the corridor that he shakily hauled himself up to a sitting position and muttered,

'Jerks...'

Malice re-entered the large, studio-lit cavern. The guards had been dismissed, and Greyscale and Psyche were arguing; neither noticed him come in. He listened to their conversation without interest; the only thing that interested him was hunting. Unfortunately, he was stuck with this tedious job. He stood leaning against the cavern wall, invisible to the two arguers.

'Why didn't you tell me that this was all about a grudge? I thought you were smarter than to lie to me!' Greyscale said angrily.

'I had to be sure you would do the job! You are one of them; I needed to make certain that you wouldn't double-cross me. You might have if you knew my true intentions,' Psyche said in return.

'You should know me better. I want them as much as you do.'

'If that's so, why don't you do the honours?'

'Gladly.' Greyscale stormed off in Malice's direction. When he got close, Malice stopped him, now interested.

'What was all that?' he asked.

'He lied about the reason he wanted the Warners captured. Now he tells me he wants revenge, but he needs the rest of them,' Greyscale said, as he walked down the same corridor that Malice had just come from. The tiger followed. They arrived at the cell door, and Greyscale lifted a whip from the wall beside it.

'And I'm going to find out where they are,' he said, and went inside.