Gamma screamed as Dexter lunged at her, ripping out her internal organs and forcing terror to turn to agony as he mauled her. Then he stormed off, leaving what remained of Gamma's entrails in a pool of blood…

Or, at the very least, that was what played through Gamma's mind as she shielded herself only to find that Dexter had leapt over her rather than at her. She tore away from her arm and watched as he landed softly, his back turned to her, and fled into the shadows of the distance, leaving Gamma to play with her confusion. After looking back-and-forth towards the bus and the path ahead, she groaned and slapped her forehead, knowing what had to be done. "I'm mad," She grumbled as she entered the vehicle, dropped down into the driver's seat and started fiddling with the different gears. "Absolutely, stark-raving mad!" After a moment the bus spluttered into life and Gamma studied the path ahead, holding the steering-wheel tightly. "Please don't do anything stupid, Dexter." She begged and whirred off, hot on the pursuit of her friend.

Gamma kept an ear out, tracking Dexter by his howls, he seemed to be heading for unknown territory rather than somewhere like Genius Grove, more familiar territory, in other words. Soon enough, the bus decided that Eternal Vistas was as far as it could go, and choked the engine just outside of the entrance to the cemetery. "No, no, no!" Gamma shouted and kicked the side of her seat angrily only to yelp and hop about the bus clutching her throbbing foot, shouting out words like: "Why me? Why me?"

By then the moon was nearing the middle of the sky, watching Gamma as she climbed over the rusty fence that led to the bone yard and she drifted amongst the tombstones, constantly reminding herself that she was doing it to help Dexter rather than facing a phobia of the undead. She took out the Null Void gun and grasped it tightly as she looked up at the entrance gate with the word 'Endsville' grafted on it and shivered, forcing herself to enter the place she'd vowed never to put a foot in.

The sinister fog that blanketed Endsville almost blinded Gamma as she passed through evacuated streets, the empty buildings loomed over her as she wandered in a ghost-like fashion. Yet her fear kept a firm grasp, making the girl shake perhaps a little bit more than Dexter before he began to morph, and she took in the familiarity of the scene, the endless fog, chilling weather and the few monsters that prowled the streets. All of these things made Gamma recall a time when she stumbled upon a game known as-

"Ouch!" A voice yelped, causing Gamma to scream. She'd stopped paying attention to her sense of direction and had accidentally bumped into a lad who seemed much taller than herself. He rubbed his large nose and looked down at Gamma irritably. "Watch where ya' going, you coulda' hurt me!"

The remainder of the strength that had bubbled up when Gamma had faced up against Swift bit back. "Well, excuse me!" She replied as the boy adjusted his red baseball cap that covered ginger hair. "But you'd be in a hurry too if your friend had just gone on a rampage!"

Suddenly the boy froze, his white t-shirt with a blue line across the stomach creased as he stared. "A rampage?" He asked, brushing dirt from his worn out trousers and sneakers. "You mean like that really big plushie I saw jumping from house to house a while ago?" Gamma's eyes grew wide.

"You didn't happen to get a glimpse of what it looked like, did you?" She asked hopefully. The boy hesitated.

"No," He pointed to the left, indicating something shrouded by the fog. "But I saw it near the power station, it seemed really angry so we left as quickly as we could!" Then the boy looked around. "Oh no, hold on," He cupped his hands together and put them above his mouth, calling out into the darkness. "Runty, hurry up, we haven't got all night and we need to get back soon!" As if by magic, a small, tear-shaped blob bounded into view. It looked up at the boy with large, crimson eyes, body bouncing with green liquid and it chittered happily as it approached. Gamma backed away slowly, readying her weapon.

"A Fusion Spawn?" She cried. "Are you mad? That thing will eat us alive!" But the boy simply smiled as the blob looked at Gamma, then it squeaked and leapt up onto her face, licking it cheerfully.

"Awwww…" The boy cooed as he watched eagerly, ignoring Gamma's audible complaints and protests. "I'm Billy, by the way," He introduced himself and then pointed at the Fusion Spawn. "And this is my pal, Runty." Runty chirruped and jumped down from Gamma's drool-soaked face. She retched and attempted to get as much of the liquid off of her cheeks as she could.

"I'm Gamma Areothunder, one of Dexter's recruits," She replied, flicking the last of Runty's affectionate 'gesture' off. "But that's not the reason why I'm here, just so you know." Billy nodded as she spoke.

"Come to think of it," He looked back at where the power plant was. "That plushie I saw did look kinda like Dexter, only much taller and weirder 'cause it howled like a wolf!" As if on cue, a haunting howl sprang up in the distance and, in the process, sharpened Gamma's senses.

"I've got to stop Dexter before he gets himself killed!" She insisted and headed in the direction of the noise. "C'mon, you two, I'll explain the story along the way!"

Runty looked at Billy for a moment, then chittered. Billy shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno, Runty," He replied and began to follow Gamma's lead. "But whatever's going on here looks like fun, and I'm bored anyways, so let's go!"

Dexter snarled as he wandered around what had originally been an office block, his hunger long since satisfied and he looked at his surroundings desperately, searching for the girl that haunted his mind. He had encountered two girls in the woods, but one of the had hidden her gaze from him and it irritated Dexter that he hadn't managed to see if her eyes matched those of the dark, heavy ones that stalked his mind that seemed to ask: 'I've got a story to tell, please, won't you listen to it?'

The wereplushie drew back his head and howled again, calling to the girl: 'I'm here, I'll listen to your story!' But only silence replied. Dexter whimpered, he didn't understand why the girl didn't howl back, didn't she want somebody to listen to her after all? None of it made sense…

"… And that's why I hate lemons, the end." A fairly familiar voice echoed in the distance, followed by an annoyed groan.

"Billy, are we there yet?" Dexter's ears perked up, instantly recognising the second voice. He leapt up onto the nearest house and followed the sounds of speech until his eyes fell upon two figures and a blob, wandering around on the streets below. He perched above them, eavesdropping curiously and had the feeling that he'd seen all three of them somewhere before.

Gamma sighed as Billy told the traumatic tale of how he gained a hatred towards all lemons… again. She looked around at derelict shops, trying to blot out the part in which Billy realised that the lemon he was playing with was, in fact, possessed by a ghost, so seeing a large, plushie-like figure dart across a small skyscraper seemed like a God-sent miracle to her. Gamma tapped Billy on his shoulders and pointed up at the figure. "Oh! I see it!" He exclaimed and picked up Runty, then he too pointed at the plushie. "Can you see it, Runty?" He petted the blob as the figure leapt above the trio. "Can you see the plushie getting bigger and bigger as I speak?" Gamma froze.

"Bigger and… bigger?" She looked up and almost immediately began to back away, for the plushie was hurtling straight towards her. All three screamed as the plushie landed, it reared its head and looked at Gamma with Dexter's gaze through the fog. Then Dexter turned to Billy, who had also decided to back away with Runty close behind, and roared louder than either of the trio had ever heard before in their lives. Upon instinct Gamma turned tail and fled. "Split up!" She shouted, unaware, that in a state of panic, Runty had begun bounding after her, just as terrified as his master was. Gamma wasn't sure, but she assumed that Billy would be safer than she was at the moment, for she glanced behind Runty to see Dexter on all fours, pursuing them quickly. "Head into the alleyways," She instructed. "Maybe we can lose him!" Runty chittered in response and the two of them entered the grimly, brick-walled labyrinth, occasionally looking back to make sure that they really were losing Dexter. Soon enough, he had disappeared entirely, causing Gamma to let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God…" But she soon regretted celebrating early, for as they turned the corner she nearly crashed into a dead end.

Then Runty turned and began to shake, stifling a high-pitched "Neep!" sound as both heard very determined growling from the path behind. Dexter soon emerged, snarling as he came towards Gamma, ignoring Runty and brushing him aside as he approached. The Fusion Spawn rushed over to Gamma and hid behind her, shivering timidly as she attempted to raise her line of sight.

"Dexter," She pleaded. "You can fight this," Her eyes locked onto Dexter's swivelling shoulders. "Mauling me in the most painful and unimaginable way will not help the situation get any better," Dexter still prowled towards Gamma, now only seven steps away from her. As she brought her gaze to rest upon the lower-half of the wereplushie's face she realised that defeat was unavoidable, so, using what little courage she had left, Gamma forced herself to stare directly at Dexter's eyes. "Won't you listen to me?" She begged one last time. "… Please?"

Dexter suddenly halted.

For a brief moment Gamma feared that the plushie was preparing to pounce upon her, but after a few moments of looking at each other she began to change her mind. Dexter breathed heavily, his chest inflating and deflating as he stayed fixed to where he was standing, then he watched as Gamma unwillingly walked very slowly towards him. Her heart pounded, almost as if it was about to burst out through her skin and she almost yelped when Dexter rose up on two feet. He looked down at Gamma, nearly a head-and-a-half taller than her, as she finally stopped in front of him and, now that he wasn't moving, Gamma began to see the features she'd missed when she'd seen Dexter changed. His cheeks were adorned with two ovals of pink felt that made him look like as if he was permanently blushing, then there was his nostril-less nose that seemed cat-like and cute. But his eyes were what won Gamma over, they had changed from being narrow and serious, in fact they looked… brighter than in Dexter's human form, almost child-like and glittered with a gentle gaze.

She then decided to raise her right hand, heading towards Dexter's face, and expected him to suddenly roar and rip her arm off. But Dexter remained still, watching Gamma's fingers quietly as they almost touched the felt on his cheek…

"… AYAAAHHHHHH!" Dexter looked up just in time to see Billy screaming a war-cry and landed on the plushie's shoulders, covering the wereplushie's eyes with one of his arms. Dexter roared and Gamma ran back to Runty as Billy, using his spare hand, grabbed what appeared to be a very old wedge of cheese from his pockets and shoved it in front of Dexter's nose. After a millisecond of taking the foul stench that radiated from the wedge Dexter heaved a groan and teetered, throwing Billy off as he fell to the ground, knocked completely unconscious. "Wow!" Billy exclaimed as he got up. "I didn't even know I could do that!"

Gamma looked at the cheese in Billy's hand, it looked very familiar and she couldn't help but feel that she'd seen it before. "Uh, Billy?" She began, trying to dig into the depths of her mind to try and find any memories that could help. "How did you come across that wedge of cheese?"

Billy showed Gamma the piece of putrid parmesan. "What, this thing?" He examined it for a moment. "Well… a few weeks ago some kid called Double-D wanted me to collect some green goo from Mount Blackhead," He recalled. "I don't know why he wanted me to, but I was bored so I accepted," Billy shrugged his shoulders. "Y'know what the goo is called, Fusion Matter, or something like that… so anyways, I was wanderin' around, getting as much goo as I can, when I saw this-" He pointed to the cheese. "-Lyin' on the ground, so I picked it up and here it is."

Gamma returned to Dexter's body and thrust an arm underneath his chest, then she hauled him onto her shoulders, attempting to carry him with the knowledge that she needed to get Dexter back so that he could be protected from any potential witnesses. Billy joined her, putting the cheese away and Runty escorted them, making sure that no monsters could ambush them. The rusty sign which Gamma had tensed up at began to become visible about an hour or so after the events in the alleyways. "Thanks for the help," She said while checking to see if Dexter was stirring. Billy blushed for a moment as they stood behind the entrance to Endsville. "I'll be fine from here," Then a question crossed Gamma's mind. "By the way, why the heck were you out here at this time of night, don't you need sleep like the rest of us do?"

Billy smiled and looked at Runty. "I've been like this for a long time, it's 'cause Runty here needs lots of exercise considerin' he doesn't run after people and eat them like other Fusion Spawns do," He beamed at the bouncing blob. "Ever since most of the scary monsters went away we've gone out, and we've walked and walked, and it's awesome!" The trio said their good-byes and parted ways, but not before Runty turned back, giving Gamma one last understanding look and followed his master back into the fog. Then Gamma dragged her friend all the way back to the bus, only to realise that the engine had died out on her only a little while ago.

"Well," She groaned and leaned against the side of the vehicle. "I'm screwed…" The girl turned and kicked the side of the bus angrily before jumping in surprise as the hunk of metal coughed, seeming to be resurrected. Then there was the next big problem: Getting Dexter through the doors when he was not only taller than the entrance, but also bigger in size due to being over-stuffed with so much plushie-filling inside his inhuman stomach. Eventually, after many shoves, Gamma managed to prop Dexter across the first row of seats and sank down into the driver's seat, keeping an eye on her friend in case he regained consciousness before the long drive back to Tech Square.

… But yet, Gamma couldn't find the fear she had brought up against Dexter as he'd chased after her.

Not, at least, after the encounter in the alleyways…

The navy sky was just beginning to turn pale when Gamma finally halted at Dexlabs HQ, the simple-looking building where Dexter lived. She grabbed the wereplushie and stared up at the radar on top of the lab before heading over to the medical clinic to, at the very minimum, give Dexter the chance to change back in peace. He was just beginning to stir when Gamma left him, heading back to her room in the dormitories for those who didn't have anywhere to go at night and as she entered the place she called home she went over to the desk where the well-loved panther plushie now sat. Looking at the alarm clock, which read 3:48 (in other words: not a good time to clock off work, either), Gamma picked up a photo frame and looked at two adults smiling down at a podgy, little girl, her parents and her nine-year old self, no doubt. Her mother, just as plump as she was, with fair hair, glasses and in a very nice black cardigan and her father, a dark-haired man with a beard, clad in an office shirt and a look that reminded Gamma of Dexter.

'So, how do you like your new laptop?'

The memory played in Gamma's head like a record.

'Oh, it's so cool! I never thought I'd ever have a better computer than yours, Dad!'

'I'm glad, sweetie.'

'I'm really thankful, my desktop won't play the game, it's so addicting!'

'Game? What do you mean?'

'I mean Fusionfall, Dad, it's one of those MMORPGs featuring characters from Cartoon Network shows!'

She put the frame down so that she couldn't see the family any more, then she wiped her tears and flopped down on the bed, sobbing quietly until she drifted off to sleep.

It was Gamma's audible snoring that woke up her neighbours about forty seconds later.