Author's Note: Here is another installment of our angry old man Preds! Have fun!

Disclaimer: NOTHING.

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The Ooman That Got Away

Glaw yawned, stretching his arms high. His back felt a bit stiff. He sat up and realized he'd dozed off in his chair. No wonder his back was acting up. Torkel had had his head on Glaw's shoulder and it had since fallen backwards, Torkel still snoring lightly in a doze.

Glaw grumbled, feeling all the old aches and pains. In a less than charitable mood, he reached out a hand and gave Torkel a vicious poke in the side. Torkel snorted and started, slipping from his chair and landing forcefully on the ground. Grunting, Torkel stood, glowering at his friend.

"THAT was uncalled for! Now my knee is acting up!"

Glaw shrugged, turning away. "Well, thanks to you and making me nap, my back is all kinds of screwy, so I don't feel bad at all!"

Huffing, Torkel stomped to his control panel, clearly ready to sulk and watch his shows on their receiver. Glaw snorted and went to sharpen his weapons. Silence reigned as Torkel steadfastly ignored Glaw.

Eventually, Glaw became VERY uncomfortable. He hated it when Torkel gave him the cold shoulder. Torkel never shut up, so when he did, it was disconcerting. Sighing, Glaw set down his weapons and walked to the front, angrily plopping down in his chair. Torkel didn't even spare him a glance, eyes glued to the screen.

With a groan, Glaw crossed his arms and took a breath. "Look, it wasn't totally your fault. And my back is better now. So, your knee should feel better. It's been long enough. Besides, we need to get back on the hunt. More prey for the hunt and all."

Slowly, Torkel turned and looked at him, then nodded briskly. "Well, I suppose that's the best apology I'll get out of you. So, now I can tell you my idea."

"What idea?"

"I know where to find the PERFECT prey."

Glaw quirked his head. "Will this require more 'research' on your part? And this better not be stupid!"

Torkel shook his head. "No, the only research we need is where to find him. You remember that one Ooman? The one from our last REALLY big hunt? The one that got away?"

Glaw's eyes widened, and he tapped a finger gently on his armrest. "Yes… yes, I remember that one."

Torkel nodded again. "All we need to do is figure out his location. I'm sure we can do that somehow."

Glaw agreed and Torkel turned back to his screen, eagerly looking for their lost prey.

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Glaw looked about, less than pleased. They were in the middle of a large desert, few things in any direction. There was a large rock to their left, but other than that, pretty much nothing. Crossing his arms, Glaw uncloaked and sighed. "Well. Are you SURE this is the right place? Last time he was in that tropical area."

Torkel shrugged. "Well, according to my research, he originally comes from this area and returned here after he escaped from us. I just can't think of why he'd be out here. I see no dwelling."

Glaw was about to respond, when there was a sudden shriek and a small, foul smelling blob of food launched itself towards the two of them. It splatted directly onto Glaw's torso, stinking something awful. Making a face, he scraped off some of the mess, trying to figure out what it was.

Peering at the globs, Torkel nodded to himself. "It's just some old, bad, fish. And, rice? I believe the one we're looking for did all that screaming, and claimed he was a master of seven different kinds of sushi. Whatever that is. Maybe what you got splattered with?"

They both started when an old Ooman man clambered out from under the rock nearby, screeching and hurling more foul globs of the fish and rice at the two warriors. The Ooman was old, wearing tattered and stained garments, and he smelled less than pleasant. A wild look in his eye, he began hollering again, flailing his stick like arms about. His long, grungy hair fluttered about him, adding to the air of general disarray.

Glaw and Torkel eyeballed the strange man who was still flinging a few types of rotten fish at them. Torkel dodged a chunk and spoke to Glaw quietly. "He says that he is a master of seven types of sushi. I'm really not certain what that means."

Glaw snorted, crossing his arms. "Well, it's clear that it's just the ramblings of a crazy old Ooman. The man probably can't even tell his nose from his toes anymore. We certainly can't take HIM with us. We'd be laughed off the planet, and then killed. For idiocy."

Torkel and Glaw pondered for a bit while the man kept shrieking and flailing and flinging rotten fish at them. Then, Torkel started. "Do you suppose WE broke him?"

Glaw started. "What now?"

"Do you suppose we broke him? He wasn't like this the last time we ran into him. Perhaps hunting and killing all his teammates in front of him wasn't the best thing for his mind. We've seen it happen before."

Pondering on this, Glaw dodged another volley of badly kept food stuffs. He shrugged. "Nah. Besides, why should we care? We should leave. We still need more prey and our time is running short. We cannot fail in this!"

Turning to leave, Glaw was stopped short by Torkel's arm on his shoulder. Turning, Glaw gave him a nasty glare. "What NOW, Torkel?"

Wilting, Torkel, turned to look at the man now flopped on the dirt beside the rock, rolling about on the ground, chattering to himself. Torkel sighs. "Come on, Glaw. We can't leave him here like this! What if we took him to those other Oomans? You know the ones. They could take care of him."

Glaw continues stomping off, snorting. "Why would we want to do a fool thing like that? The man is clearly fine here. He's made it this long."

"Glaw."

Glaw hated it when Torkel used THAT tone of voice. Sighing, Glaw gave up. Torkel wouldn't let this go now for anything. "Fine. Go get the crazy man. It's a shame he turned out this way. I would think it would be a mercy to put him out of his misery. Just look at how far he's fallen!"

Torkel had conveniently knocked out the man with a well placed bonk on the head and was carrying him on his shoulder. Torkel shrugged. "He still managed to get the jump on us from under that rock, you know. And he still has plenty of fight in him."

Not wanting to acknowledge the truth of that statement, Glaw just stomped off, irritated beyond all belief. "Just what I needed… ANOTHER Ooman to look after!"

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Larry sighed, leaning back in his rocker. It was getting close to time to put Rebecca to bed. Yawning, he looked over at his friends. Jerry was busy fussing with one of his hearing aids and Joe was fast asleep, snoring loudly. Larry took another puff on his pipe, watching the sun go down over the fields.

Suddenly, the wind picked up. A distortion of light and air landed on the large front lawn, quickly revealing itself to be a space ship. Larry quirked an eyebrow, then poked Jerry. "Hey. Wake Joe up. Our buddies have come for a visit."

Jerry nodded, leaned over, and gave Joe a sharp poke to the forehead. Joe woke up snorting, startled."What? What? Is it the commies?"

Jerry snorted, carefully putting his hearing aid back in. "You ALWAYS think it's the damn commies, Joe! Can't you think of something else for once?"

Before Joe could spew forth the answer he was clearly concocting, the alien ship opened up and two figures walked out. Larry waved lazily, puffing on his pipe. "Good to see you again Glaw. Torkel. What's that you've got over there?"

Torkel waved happily, then tossed the unconscious man at their feet. Jerry stood, hobbling on his cane, and proceeded to poke the guy on their lawn. "Aw, damn it, you two! We can't be taking in all the people ya'll find! What do you think this is, an orphanage? A day care? A RETIREMENT HOME? Did you know that my oldest boy, Derek, wants to have me put in a HOME? A home! Why, I'll shoot anyone what tries to take me off this land, I tell you!"

Larry sighed. "Jerry, stop your whining. We've got ourselves a guest, and that's that. What's his name, fellas?"

Torkel shrugged and spoke. "He say word lots. Sooshi?"

Larry snorted. "His name can't be sushi. That's fish food."

Joe started and began hollering. "It's the Japs! The damn Japs! They've come for me! The commies will get us all!"

Larry and Jerry yelled in tandem. "SHUT UP, JOE!"

Joe subsided, sniffling, muttering to no one in particular about the grand plot of communists to take over the world through advertisements on the TV. Larry sighed, then returned his attention to Glaw and Torkel and the newest addition to his household. "Well boys, we'll figure that all out eventually. Help get him inside to the spare bedroom. We'll mess with the details later."

Torkel nodded and picked up the still snoozing man from the grass, strolling into the house. Suddenly, there was a high pitched squeal and a blur of blue ran around the side of the house, launching itself at Glaw's leg. Glaw started, but stood his ground against the ferocious onslaught of the tiny Ooman girl.

Rebecca giggled, wrapped around one of Glaw's legs. "Grampa Glaw! I missed you! Is Gramma Torkel here, too? He makes tasty food! And I drew you pictures! Are you staying this time? Won't you play with me?"

Glaw took this all stoically, refusing to stare down into the angelic little face looking up at him trustingly. Rebecca unlatched one of her arms to push a strand of her reddish brown hair out of her eyes, then clamped back down.

Strolling as best as he could towards the porch, Glaw took a seat on one of the steps, nodded occasionally to whatever Rebecca was saying. It was hard to believe that it had been five years since he had brought her here. She had been so tiny then. Not that she wasn't STILL tiny, but once upon a time he could hold her in the palm of one hand.

Torkel finally came back out and Rebecca giggled, running to him. Torkel picked her up and swung her about, before he sat down on the steps near Glaw, Rebecca perched happily in his lap, regaling him with all of her feelings of excitement that she was going into the third grade. Torkel nodded patiently, clearly impressed.

The sun dipped lower in the sky and the five men, and one little girl, watched it go, perfectly content. As the fireflies came out, glinting amongst the grass, Rebecca began to yawn, and Larry decided it was time to get her off to bed. Asking about why Glaw and Torkel were back could wait for a half hour.

Scooping Rebecca up, Larry went inside and told her to get ready for bed. After a few weak complaints, she scrambled into her night dress, brushed her hair and her teeth, and grabbed her favorite stuffed animal, a little llama she called Paco.

She ran back outside and gave everyone hugs and goodnight kisses. Then, yawning more and more, eyes drooping, Larry tucked her in and went back to the porch, settling into his rocking chair. He relit his pipe and smoked it quietly. All the old men gazed into the night sky.

Joe interrupted the moment of peace. "So. Where did you boys pick up the commie lover?"

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End Author's Note: This WILL all be explained, we PROMISE. In the meantime, is there anyone that YOU would like to see Glaw and Torkel try to capture? Do they succeed? Do they fail? Tell us what you would like to see and we can make it happen!

Thank you muchly!