Dang, guys, sorry for the unexpected hiatus, but life became a sudden pain in the arse. But, nonetheless, here is a new chapter… which features a new friend of ours ;)

~11~

The last thing Biff 1 remembered was a dark shadow falling over them, and a pink gas was sprayed over the crowd of meddlers… and the rest was a blank. Once he regained consciousness, he noticed all the meddlers and their gangs were placed in several different cages, made of steel with glass doors- which, apparently, were indestructible, as he noticed Jabberjaw kept banging his head on the door of his gang's cage. They also seemed to have a special force-field that prevented Mudsy from using his ghost-skills to escape (apparently whoever caught them watches Danny Phantom).

He sat up, seeing that Kim was at his side, and they were the only two in their cage- considering the rest of their gang was out helping search for the authors. "Kim… where are we?" Biff 1 whispered to her.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Kim replied, looking through the glass window. They saw Freddy, Daphne, and Velma in a cage, waving wildly at them, calling… but they couldn't hear them. The glass was also sound-proof too.

A large door opened, and in walked a figure dressed in black… and it was no surprise that it was the woman they were sent out to search for. "Hello, Meddlers… welcome to my lair," she said, having a German accent. "You are probably wondering why I've brought you here…"

"What?" Freddy called.

"I have heard of your quest to find those authors…"

"What did she say?" Tinker asked.

"I have no idea," Mark answered.

"But as you can see, I've locked you in a high-facility chamber, preventing you from-" the woman continued.

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?" Alexandra shouted.

The villainess paused, seeing that none of the meddlers had paused to hear her evil scheme- like what they normally do. "Oh. One moment…" she grabbed a microphone lowered from the ceiling, which was hooked to some speakers within the cages. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Madame LaRael, and I have captured you in order to prevent you from finding those authors."

"Why?" Daphne demanded… though it turns out the villainess couldn't hear them either.

"Why, you may ask? Well, I do hate to be the one who gives away spoilers, but if you haven't heard, I come from the future- from a time that was supposed to be about this world being run by Finneas, Time Lord, and myself. …At least, that's how it was MEANT to be, until those authors spoiled everything, as well as you meddling kids!"

"Huh. Normally the villains don't say that until AFTER we beat them," Freddy commented.

"What happened, you may wonder- if you don't already know… Well, first of all, that boy you Mystery Inc. characters always hang around with took down Time Lord and destroyed his plans by going into the past. And then the offspring of those other three authors came into the past and helped their parents take down Finneas. Once those moments were recorded in the history books, I realized it was up to ME to conquer the world… starting by coming into the past and making sure none of you try to stop me, and taking down those authors and that chosen one!"

"Chosen one?" Kim questioned.

"She must mean that girl Sirius and Jo accidentally brought back in time," Biff guessed.

"And if you're wondering what I plan on doing with the rest of you…" LaRael answered, giving an evil chuckle. "Lets just say, you'll be wishing you were at the mercy of your previous foes." With that, she left.

"Why is it that every time we get a gig, we wind up in some crooked scheme?" Alexander whined.

"We've got to find a way out of here!" April said, looking around her steel cage. "Mudsy, are you sure you and Boo can't get out?"

"If I could, I'd be gone by now," Mudsy answered.

"Well I doubt there's any way out of here." Skip replied. "This glass is ghost-proof, shark-proof, shatter-proof, and if anyone tried to use a gun, it'll turn out to be bullet-proof too! There's absolutely no way any of us…"

*Clang!*

"Look!" Augie said, pointing over.

Sebastian had used his claw like a glass-cutter, and made a hole in his cage. "I guess it's not claw-proof," Mudsy said.

Sebastian walked over to a button, which opened all the cages, pushing it and releasing the others. "Way to go, Sebastian!" Alan congratulated the cat. "Now, lets find a way out of here, and figure out how to stop LaRael,"

"How? We don't even know where we are!" Shelly pointed out. "What are we supposed to do, look for a tour guide?"

"(ahem)" came a scoff, and everyone looked over… seeing a mysterious figure in a long coat, wide-rimmed hat, sunglasses, with the collar pulled over their mouth. "I'm not a tour guide… but I believe I know how to get you all out,"

"Who are you… and how'd you get in here?" Biff 2 asked.

"My name is Agent 99-99-99… but you may refer to me as 'Mr. Cartoon.' I work with a special agency that locates missing people, villains, underground drug markets, and cute, fluffy terroristic animals. I was on a mission that involved using a Holy Hand Grenade to rid the world of a vicious killer rabbit, when I ran into a future-agent, who informed me of a recent mishap a friend of mine was in." he looked over his shoulder. "She has incredible tracking skills, and is finishing up dismembering the guards outside that secret door we've located…"

*Thud!*

As if on cue, a pile of beaten up guards were thrown through part of the wall, which turned out to be a hologram used to disguise a doorway… and through said doorway stepped out Elizabeth Fangsworth. "I was wondering when I'd show up," she said to the reader.

"Tracker! But… we thought you went missing!" Biff 1 gasped.

"I was. That LaRael bitch tried to kill me off so I couldn't keep coming back and warning you all of future disasters. Luckily, however, her attempt involved trying to feed me to a killer-rabbit, and that's when Mr. Cartoon here saved me. LaRael doesn't even know I'm alive,"

"But how'd you find out we were missing?" Kim asked.

"Future-sense. I recalled a memory of Biff telling the family about how you all were captured at the concert, and managed to get a trace from there. …I suppose the others are still in the real world, right?"

"We don't know, but that's where the rest of our gang is looking," Daphne replied.

Liz nodded. "Good. Then the timeline is almost on the right track,"

Everyone exchanged glances. "What do you mean, Tracker?" Biff asked.

"Well, when I was in the future last, I looked up our stories in old newspapers- but the weird thing was, all the dates were chronologically out of whack. For instance, Finneas was to take over by the time I was 13… yet we defeated him before I was even born. It turns out that LaRael was the one who was behind the takeover, not Finneas."

"She said she was partners with him and Time Lord," Alan said.

"Right, but that was only in the future. With them no longer around to dominate, she took over in Finneas' place, being the one who was really trying to destroy the authors and rallying the old villains who didn't die."

"So how would this make the timeline whacked-out, again?" Clamhead asked, scratching his head.

"It means, everything that had already happened wasn't supposed to happen yet," Mr. Cartoon answered.

"Right. Since we defeated the villains early, we set off some sort of paradox," Tracker added. "In which, unless we can defeat LaRael in the right time period, everything will be out of order."

"So what are we supposed to do, just wait a few years until her hostile takeover?" Alexandra sneered.

"No, we have to stop her before the hostile takeover,"

"Alright, now you're just confusing us!"

Liz rolled her eyes, then pulled out an old newspaper clipping… which, ironically, was from the future. "Here, look at this."

"'Bears beat Yankees during Ninth Inning'?" Stanley asked.

Liz turned it around. "Wrong side."

"'Meddling Kids Save the World Again- Noids and Toons live in peace'," Augie read aloud.

"Right… but look at the date. According to it, LaRael was to be defeated before Finneas or Time Lord- way back in the 1940's!"

The meddlers blinked. "That… makes no sense!" Velma replied. "None of us were even drawn back then!"

"True… but back then, Toons and Noids (as they call people from the real-world) used to live together in one universe." Mr. Cartoon explained. "The two worlds, rather than working as opposing universes, were separated by a border… like what the one in Who Framed Roger Rabbit."

"I remember that movie!" Henry spoke up. "It took place in the 1950's!"

"Yes. It was more of a 'true story' kind of thing, to help show how Noids and Toons used to interact."

"So, where is the border?" Josie asked.

"No one knows. By the time the 60's began, it was shut down. People thought too many of the cartoons were dangerous and uncontrollable, and didn't want them back in the real-world, and the former Cartoon King used his power to split the two worlds into two universes, claiming that only the chosen one can put them back together when the real-world is ready."

"And it was supposed to happen by the time I was 13," Liz added. "Unfortunately, LaRael and the others didn't want the two worlds to be united in peace- rather, they wanted to merge them in a way that could cause both universes to collapse, allowing them to recreate both worlds the way they wanted."

"So… we're dealing with a villain who wants to play God? That's sick." Shelly sneered.

"But who was the Cartoon King?" Debbie asked.

"The first cartoonbrid, who called himself Professor Salvation… he was the twin brother of Judge Doom, only he was good… and not hideously deformed." Mr. Cartoon answered. "You see, he was supposed to be the only one who was half-cartoon and half-reality, having discovered his toon-counterpart at a very young age of 12. They fused together and- since they didn't know how to defuse like the authors know today- became one person, having the ability to change into whatever form that matched whatever world they were in, and never having to age."

"What about Judge Doom, then?" April asked.

"He wasn't so lucky. Not everyone has a counterpart, you see, and he was one of those people… and insanely jealous of Prof. Salvation. So jealous, he used a spell to try to fuse with a cartoon villain, so he could destroy his brother… but since they weren't a match, the fusion went wrong, making him look like a Noid with horrifying cartoon-features."

"And boy, were they horrifying," Alexander agreed, shuddering.

"That's when he really went insane, and wanted to destroy the toon world once and for all, coming up with DIP… which ended up destroying him, ironically."

"And good riddance," Shelly scoffed.

"So where's Professor Salvation now?" Suzy Chan asked.

Mr. Cartoon let out a heavy sigh. "Heaven. After the worlds were separated, he and his counterpart learned how to separate. The toon-half, sad to say, was caught in the middle of a tragic pie-fight and- being allergic to apple- got struck by an apple-pie, and died of an allergic reaction. As for the reality half, he was run over by a car."

"That's terrible! So there's no Cartoon King?" Mimi Chan gasped.

"Oh, there is one. You see, right before Salvation died-"

An alarm sounded off just then.

"Whoop, forgot we were still in villain headquarters. I'll tell you the rest later, right now, we'd better split!"

"To the holographic wall!" Mudsy declared, shooting toward the wall- but splatted against the solid part.

"A little more to the left, Mudsy," Liz said, showing them where the exit was really at.

Together, all the meddlers fled.

~11~

Next Chapter- CHASE MUSIC TIME!

*pardon any chronological confusion placed in this chapter… you are not alone*