The grenade passed through the Martian as if he was intangible, and exploded onto the wall.

'Crap,' Daffy cursed, realizing this was a hologram. That meant the real Martian was somewhere, hidden, perhaps behind him.

Life's predictability was proved when an armored hand grabbed his shoulder and flung him as if he was a rag doll. Daffy crashed into the cold wall and was surprised he didn't break any bones.

Marvin the Martian strode into the room, red cape billowing behind him. Daffy reached for his minigun on the floor, but Marvin simply pointed at it. A laser shot out of his finger and disintegrated the weapon. A moment later there was a high pitched screech.

Daffy gulped. The laser had traveled faster than the sound it produced when discharged.

For a moment Marvin's finger pointed at Daffy's head. The duck thought if he was going to die. Then suddenly, Marvin's hand dropped to his side.

'You will remain in this corner,' he boomed, 'and you will not resist. If you do, I'll have to take drastic measures.'

Daffy had sufficiently recovered to employ his sarcasm.

'You aren't going to kill me?' he said skeptically.

'No, Daffy.'

Daffy did a double take. 'How do you know my name?'

'I know all about you, Daffy,' the Martian's glowing eyes seemed to have some kindness in them. 'I read your biography. Used to work with the Mutts, didn't you?'

'Don't you try mindf***ing me. My boss warned me about that.'

'Your boss? You mean dear Mrs Webster?'

'Why yes. You wanna make something of it?'

'She warned me about the assassins that were coming to my planet to kill me. Basically, she betrayed you. In exchange for that information Mars gave Venus two tones of ACME supply. Pity, Mrs Webster was the last person I expected to play dirty politics.'

Daffy was shocked into silence.

'Perhaps you don't believe me. I'll contact her now, and you'll be witness to what she says.'

Daffy was still keeping his mouth shut, eyes wide.

'Well, you sit tight. My carefully positioned signs should lead the remaining two assassins right to the throne room, one after another. Where I'll be waiting for them.'

Marvin turned away. 'I'm going to hide myself now.'

He was walking towards the doorway when he heard a small chuckle.

Frowning, Marvin tuned back to see Daffy suppressing a grin. The grin grew wider and wider, then suddenly Daffy burst out laughing.

'Something funny, Daffy?' Marvin did not seem surprised.

'Just reminiscing about an old joke,' Daffy sniggered. 'What happens...if Death asks Life for an apple?'

'I think I know the answer,' Marvin said, 'and it is not amusing.'

'It's the crazy kind of amusing, y'know?' Daffy stood up. 'Now, I'm going to hear you out.'

'Pardon?'

'You obviously want to brainwash me or something. Well, bring it on. I'm ready.'

A loud BOOM made Porky sit up in his chair.

BOOM. BOOM.

A Mutt ran in. 'Sir,' he gasped. 'The forcefield – people are trying to break it!'

'What?' Porky looked out the window and saw two people. One was Foghorn Leghorn, the chicken guy. The other was Tweety, a creature whom many had speculated to be gay.

The two of them were firing at the forcefield with bazookas, weakening it bit by bit.

Porky stared with his mouth open. This was illogical in two reasons. One, corrupt as the Looney World citizens were, they would never attack the Global Mayor, as that would lead to utter chaos and the destruction of Looney World.

Secondly, there was an acid rain forecast, which would be starting any moment know. Were these people trying to get themselves killed?

Then they started shouting, and Porky understood.

'Stop the missile!' Foghorn yelled.

'Recall it! The Martian shall not be harmed!' squeaked Tweety.

The forcefield was down to less than 50% of its strength.

Elmer Fudd was walking down this damn maze, cocking his shotgun to let off some steam. Suddenly he felt cold steel on his neck.

'Do not move,' said a mechanical voice.

Fudd lowered the shotgun. 'Shit,' he said. 'Look, we can make a deal. Marvin the Martian – '

'My business right now concerns you, Elmer Fudd, not the Martian,' droned the voice.

Fudd was interested. But he was also being held by gunpoint. He carefully started moving the shotgun downwards. It was a continuous movement which was extremely slow, and it would go unnoticed by most people.

'What do you mean?' enquired Fudd.

'Sylvester sent me.' The voice said, and Fudd nearly dropped his gun in surprise.

'Yes,' the expressionless voice continued. 'Ever since he was a child he has been waiting to take revenge on you. He only recognized you this afternoon. Gone bald since you last met, eh?'

'Who are you?' Fudd snapped.

'That does not matter. What matters is the amount of money Sylvester paid me to kill you. He gave all the money he had to me. Pitiful cat, I feel sorry for him.'

Fudd, sweating by now, had maneuvered his shotgun so that it was pointing directly at the floor on a 90 degree angle.

'I stowed away on your shuttle. Followed you here. And now - '

Fudd fired his shotgun. There was a loud bang as he was catapulted upwards, and away from his mysterious assailant. He crashed through the ceiling and landed on the second floor. Fudd quickly up righted himself and aimed his gun at the hole in the floor.

There was no one there.

'Don't run away from what you did!' shouted the voice.

'Where are you!' Fudd growled.

'I am invisible,' the voice continued, closer this time. Fudd spun around in a circle, trying to locate the voice. But it was impossible. Besides, how the hell did that guy get invisibility anyway? Invisibility was rare even in Looney World(there was only one invisible shuttle in the entire world, remember?).

'So that's you sneaked onboard the shuttle. And you were the one whp disabled the anti-radar detection system.'

'I don't blame Sylvester for wanting revenge,' the voice continued as if it hadn't heard. 'Let me tell you a story.'

'One day, there was a family of three cats. They were perfectly happy.'

Fudd backed away warily.

'The father was a football coach. The mother was a grocer. This was in the days before the madness gripped Looney World, of course.'

'Shut up,' Fudd growled.

'The father liked chocolate. The mother liked vanilla ice cream. They would often go on walks together with their son, and on Sundays go to the beach.'

'I said shut up!' yelled Fudd.

'The father had a weird laugh. The mother was talented at poetry. Their son went wherever they went, like a loyal dog. I remember reading their case file. Such promising individuals.'

'You were one of the first ones to go insane. You entered the house. The father was telling a joke. The mother was laughing. The father laughed his weird laugh. Then you fired your shotgun and blew their brains both to bits. Right in front of young Sylvester.'

Fudd was shaking in anger. 'I just needed to let off some steam,' he growled.

'Is that your excuse? Some might consider you leaving Sylvester alive is a mistake. You better watch out for him. When he hears I failed to kill you he'll go after you himself.'

'W-what?' Fudd said dangerously softly, still shaking

'I'm not going to kill you, Elmer. I believe you deserve a second chance.'

'What the shit?' Fudd cried. 'You try to make me feel bad and now you give me a second chance? Who are you?'

'The question is,' the voice said, ignoring Fudd's question, 'is whether you want to take that second chance.'

There was silence for a moment. Nothing stirred in the cold walls of the palace.

'It's a Looney World,' Fudd said quietly punctuating each word. 'And I'm a Loonie. Nothing I can do will ever change that. Now why don't you get out of here before things get messy.'

Suddenly a figure appeared out of nowhere, and Fudd jumped. He aimed his shotgun, but lowered it when he saw who the figure was.

'Lola Bunny?' he frowned in puzzlement.

'I've had enough of this shit,' Lola replied evenly. Come, I'll take you to the Martian.'

Fudd was still utterly gobsmacked, trying to process what the hell she was doing here.

Lola sighed and held up two pieces of equipment. 'Voice distorter and invisibility force field,' she pointed them out. 'The latter I programmed from the invisible shuttle.'

Suddenly realization dawned. 'You're the traitor,' he gasped. 'You were invisible. So you followed us. Listened in on our conversations with the Global Mayor. Then passed on information to the Martian.'

'Correct. If you want to kill me, or find the Martian, try to keep up.' Suddenly Lola darted down the hole of the ceiling. Cursing, Fudd dropped down after her.

NB: You might be feeling cheated by the ending of this chapter. Sorry about that. But stick with me and I'll make up for it.