Bugs rose up, sniper rifle in hand. There was no way he could miss. Fudd's eyes widened. He saw the barrel pointing at his head.

Bugs pulled the trigger.

The bullet left the barrel and traveled through the air.

It hit plaster.

For just as Bugs had fired his rifle, another bullet pierced his hand, causing him to drop the rifle and sending the bullet in the wrong direction. Calming himself, he looked around, trying to locate the source of his attacker. It certainly wasn't Fudd, for obvious reasons.

'Over here,' said a youthful voice. Bugs turned towards it and for the first time in a long time, he was utterly surprised.

Standing in front of him, holding a sniper rifle, was Sylvester. He nodded curtly to Fudd, who nodded equally curtly in return.

'Crap!' Bugs swore. Yes, he was swearing now. 'How in the hell did you two become allies?'

He had to wait for an answer, for Fudd had left the window and now was in the process of climbing down the stairs. He emerged from the building, left his shotgun lying on the ground, and faced Bugs at a distance.

'Don't move! I sure as hell don't want to kill you, but if you try to rough things up…'

'Okay, I surrender,' Bugs said. 'But just tell me what the hell is going on.'

'We have a common enemy,' Sylvester spoke up. 'It's only natural we work together.'

'Common enemy?'

'I converted him,' Fudd said proudly. 'Had to fire a shot to get his attention, but here you see another follower of Marvin the Martian.'

Bugs was shocked into silence.

'We'll have to hold you captive Bugs, since you hold information that could destroy Mars. Get moving, and follow me!' He jerked his head to the left, and started walking, careful not to get to close to Bugs. Sylvester followed up behind them, pointing his rifle at the rabbit's back.

As they walked, Bugs was still bemused. Something was missing here. Something that had caused Fudd to change to become a saint. Something which had brought Fudd and Sylvester to a shaky, but genuine alliance. These things didn't just happen overnight. Before he could ask, shit hit the fan.

There was the sound of submachine gun fire, and Sylvester fell to the ground crying in pain. Fudd looked sharply toward him but no longer opposed when a burst of gunfire destroyed his kneecap, driving him down to one knee.

Sylvester was slowly getting up. He had only been shot in the shoulder. But a gun barrel was pressed into his back, sending him to the ground again.

The gun belonged to a certain wolf-man hybrid known as Wolfgang.

Mr. Parrot and Weasel-Face, the other two people part of RR's elite trio, approached the scene, Thompson Sub-machineguns in their hand.

'You move, get shot,' grunted Weasel-Face. Bugs started to walk towards his rescuers, but Mr. Parrot leveled his gun at him.

'That applies to you too. One more step, and you know what.'

Bugs shrank back. Today was a very puzzling day.

Suddenly RR appeared. Simple as that. One moment he wasn't there, the next he was. As if he had teleported.

'We're allies,' Bugs protested. Then he gestured to Fudd and Sylvester, 'Kill them.'

'Meep meep meeep.'

'He says he was coming over to check if the Martian was dead,' translated the ever helpful Mr. Parrot, 'and then he overheard you saying there was information that could destroy Mars. He wants to hear it.'

'Reason being?'

'He thinks the Global Mayor will give him a few rewards in exchange for that information. So, Bugs Bunny, please tell us what you know.'

'I have a nagging suspicion you will kill all of us once you do know,' replied Bugs. The betrayal by RR didn't come as a big surprise, actually. He should have been expecting it.

'Meeeeeeeeep?'

'We are still waiting for your answer nevertheless, Bugs.'

Fudd swore. Weasel-Face kicked him in the face.

It looked like all three of them were in deep trouble.

'I won't talk,' Bugs said stubbornly. 'And neither will these two.'

He was actually pretending Fudd and Sylvester knew the secret so that the torture was divided up among them. RR seemed to believe it. He meeped to Mr. Parrot, who nodded.

'Looks like we'll have to move to a more friendly environment,' Mr. Parrot said. 'But before that, I ask you to drop your guns, Bugs.'

Sylvester and Fudd had already been relieved of weapons. The cat was glaring at Fudd, as if blaming him for this mess that he was in. That at least proved something to Bugs, that the alliance between the two former enemies was real.

'Why don't you search me for weapons personally? I could have some hidden,' Bugs said.

An excuse for a grin formed on the parrot's scarred beak. 'RR is cleverer than that. He knows that if one gets close to you, it will be a simple thing for you to grab him, kill him, use him as a shield and take his gun. As you have done so countless times.'

Bugs sighed. 'Someone has been doing research.'

'Yes, RR does research on all his potential enemies,' continued Mr. Parrot. 'That's what helps him stay on top of the game.'

Fudd swore again, but quietly this time. Bugs could empathize – it looked like they were in deep shit now.

'So how's this, Bugs. Strip naked, and toss all weapons to Weasel-Face over there. Or we shoot you dead.'

Bugs did so. Two Eagles, a sniper rifle and a razor was handed over to Weasel-Face, who pocketed them in his suit, while all the while never taking his SMG off Fudd's head. After all that was done, Bugs calmly put his suit back on.

RR suddenly appeared next to Sylvester, grabbed him, and then disappeared.

'Looks like Sylvester's the first one to be tortured,' croaked Wolfgang. That guy had a gravelly voice.

'You two just sit tight,' ordered Mr. Parrot. He and Wolfgang pointed their barrels at Bugs's head. But they were relaxed. What could Bugs do, anyway?

Bugs looked at Fudd on the ground. Fudd looked back at him.

All things considered, this was an awkward situation.

'Well, Bugs, any ideas?' Fuss asked.

'You tried to kill me. Why would I give you any ideas?'

'I didn't aim to kill you, idiot!'

'Yu opposed me nevertheless,' Bugs sighed. He looked pointedly at his former friend. 'Let's play JawBreakers.'

'What the shit?'

'That's what I said,' Bugs said meaningfully. RR's trio didn't know what to make of this strange talk, but their captives didn't seem to be trying anything, so no harm done.

'Let me get this straight,' Fudd said. 'You want me to play JawBreakers? There's nothing to play it with!'

'We could share,' Bugs offered.

Fudd nodded, understanding. 'So are you starting first?'

Bugs nodded back.

'One,' he said.

And then he darted forward, towards Fudd and a very surprised Weasel-Face.

Mr. Parrot and Wolfgang immediately opened fire, but their bullets hit nothing but a forcefield. That was because while removing his suit to strip naked, his face had been covered by the suit momentarily. And in that instant, he had secretly inserted a mini-forcefield emitter inside his jaws.

And now he had activated it.

When Weasel-Face saw Bugs charging towards him, he instinctively raised his gun at him. A mistake. The gun barrel taken off his shoulder blades, Fudd was conveniently able to grab Weasel by his tie and bring him down to the ground.

Mr. Parrot saw that and switched his aim from Bugs to Fudd, but the now-turned saint was already moving, ignoring his injured leg, and entered the forcefield with Bugs.

Wolfgang yelled in fury. Then he realized by shooting at the forcefield he had momentarily run out of ammo. The same could be said for Mr. Parrot. They now stopped to reload, giving Bugs and Fudd a reprieve.

'I trust you got my weapons back?' Bugs said.

'Yeah,' Fudd muttered, 'Although only some.' He handed Bugs and Eagle and a razor. The second Eagle he kept for himself. 'Thanks for warning me.'

'I only did that so you could react fast enough and get me back my weapons,' Bugs replied. 'Don't think you've regained my friendship.'

He checked the forcefield strength. Fifty percent. It was a small forcefield, after all. Mr. Parrot inserted a fresh magazine. Wolfgang was a second behind. Weasel-Face was getting up.

'You take the field,' Bugs said, spitting the emitter out, and darted away without another word.

Weasel-Face aimed his submachine gun, but Fudd dived onto him first. The two fell to the ground again, wrestling with each other. Meanwhile, Bugs threw his razor at Wolfgang to distract him, then carefully dodged the pair's wildly spraying bullets. He systematically aimed with his Eagles, and got Mr. Parrot in the shoulder.

The bird shrieked, clutching his wound. Wolfgang, realizing the danger, held up one of the charred bodies on the ground to use for cover.

He was disappointed to see the damaged body crumble as soon as it was lifted up. Then a bullet hit him in the head, causing an explosive cloud of ash to form, combined with a bloody red mist.

Meanwhile, Fudd was slowly strangling Weasel-Face with his own tie. The creature was wheezing horribly with extertion. Then Fudd un-tightened the tie, allowing his opponent to gasp for breath, and then snarled, 'Where's Sylvester?'

Weasel's eyes darted left and right. Wolfgang was dead. Mr. Parrot had taken cover behind a mailbox and was firing wildly from the hip. Needless to say no bullets came near Bugs or Fudd at all. He was panicking. His bursts ended in dull clicks as his clip expired.

'See? You don't have much chance of surviving' Fudd snapped. 'So tell me – where is Sylvester? Where would RR usually take him?'

Mr. Parrot hastily fished a fresh clip from his pocket, but dropped it in his haste. Bugs slowly walked towards him and raised his eagle. As he fired, Mr. Parrot at the last minute flung open the door of the mailbox. It swung in front of him, serving as a shield. Bugs's bullet dented the metal door with a loud ping.

Undeterred, Bugs snatched one of the envelopes which were pouring out of the mailbox, and with a deft sliced open the left side of Mr. Parrot's neck. Paper cuts definitely deserved more respect.

As Mr. Parrot keeled forward, clutching his reddening neck, Weasel-Face finally decided to talk.

'RR's – 'he began. He got no further. An incredible force suddenly slammed into Fudd, sending him flying and instantly destroying what was left of the forcefield.

Fudd landed hard to the ground. The wounds Bugs had given him flared up. Ignoring the pain, he got to his feet quickly and looked at Weasel-Face. He was quite clearly dead, and looked like he had been run over by a motorcycle.

Except it wasn't a motorcycle. It was RR.

Bugs looked up, saw the danger, and dodged just in time. RR shot past him like a bullet, grazing him on the elbow. Bugs dropped, rolled, and when he came back up he found that RR had knocked his Eagle from his hands. It was now lying a few metres away.

Before he could do anything, RR appeared, holding Sylvester.

'Well hello there,' RR grinned.

'You can speak English,' Bugs noted.

'I can. It's just that I hate the taste of English on my tongue.' The road runner sneered. He hoisted Sylvester in front of him. The cat was dangling limply and seemed to be dead.

'As you can see, I have a hostage,' RR said. 'Move and he dies.'

'You bastard, Road Runner!' yelled Fudd. Sudenly he was enveloped by a raging wind, and the next thing he knew, it was now him that was being held hostage by RR, while Sylvester was lying on the ground.

'It's RR, Fudd!' RR spat into his hostages's face. 'Show some respect and I'll give you a quick death.'

'Don't count your grenades before they are exploded,' Bugs said, quoting an old proverb.

'You honestly think you can stand a chance against me?' RR replied. 'You people disgust me. I've spent many hard years with my dear friend Coyote – thanks for killing him, by the way – and I've adapted. I know every single possible trick you can try.'

'For example, Bugs,' RR continued, 'I knew you alone knew the secret to Mars's doom all along.'

'Then why go along with the act?'

'Because I like to play with my food,' RR grinned. 'Before I eat it.'

It was not beyond Bugs's imagination to presume that RR meant these words literally. His shoulders sagged. His weapon was too far away, one step and RR would be two steps ahead.

'So,' RR said smoothly, throwing Fudd carelessly to the ground. 'Want to tell me anything Bugs, before I subject you to the worst pain imaginable on Looney World?'

Fudd struggled to his feet, but suddenly felt he tip of a sword pressing at his neck. RR had produced it from nowhere.

'Typical of you trash,' RR sniffed. 'You don't know when you're beaten.'

'Wait let me just say something,' Fudd protested. Without waiting for an answer he slowly stood up, RR's sword never leaving his neck.

He clasped his hands behind his back, like a gentlemen, and smiled.

'Sorry RR,' he said, 'but sacrifices have to be made.'

'What?'

Fudd continued as if RR hadn't spoken. He was completely in control now.

'In the beginning,' he said, 'there was a monster. Deep inside here.' He jerked his chin down, indicating his heart. 'That monster was anger. I couldn't control it. The monster made me kill.'

'Time was running out, you see? I had only a few days to eliminate the monster. That was what spurred me on. But then I lost hope. I couldn't, I just couldn't fight it.'

RR had no clue what Fudd was going on about, but the possibility of Fudd trying anything remotely threatening was zero. Bugs stood to one side, unable to do anything but watch.

'I thought I would run out of time, leave the monster inside me when the time was up. But then, at the last moment…'

Fudd turned his face upwards. 'I realized I could defeat the monster. Because that was what Daffy Duck did. What Foghorn Leghorn did.'

'People can become anything – good or evil. But they can change.'

It began to drizzle. Tiny drops of water fell out of the clouds and onto Fudd's face. For a moment everyone was silent, awed for a reason they could not explain.

Bugs stopped being awed and broke the silence.

'You do know,' he said, 'that it was all pretense.'

Fudd did not reply, just smiled at the raindrops falling down.

'They were actually paid to do the Martian's work,' Bugs said, heedless of his suddenly dampening suit. 'It's pretty obvious really.'

Silence arrived once more. Then suddenly, a sound. Tap, tap, tap. Something was tapping against a suit. Something was tapping uncontrollably.

Fudd ignored all that. He continued smiling, then he spoke.

'So I beat the monster. I beat the clock. I guess I have the clock to thank for that, thought, it was a real motivator. Anyway, the monster is gone now. Everything is alright. I can die as free as the mountain air.'

He finally tilted his head downwards, and looked RR straight in the eye. Despite himself, RR started to shiver. There was something about Fudd, something to say that he had a plan, and objective. And that made RR very, very scared.

But his fears were unfounded, right? He had the advantage. Holding a sword to Fudd's neck plus having the power of speed to evade any attack.

'You've gone mad,' RR said. 'Completely mad. I guess that's because of my doing.'

'Road Runner,' Fudd said, 'For once in your life, try for some forgiveness, some redemption…'

'Screw you!'

Fudd shook his head and turned to Bugs one final time.

'It's okay, Bugs,' he said. 'It's okay, now.'

He turned back to face RR in the face, and then said, 'this is your last warning.'

'I said,' RR tried to maintain his voice, 'screw you.'

'Well screw you too,' Fudd replied. 'You ever wonder why I always took pills, Road Runner? Always popping one in my mouth every once in while when I was on a job for you once? It wasn't because I was addicted, Road Runner.'

Fudd put his face close to his enemy's. 'I had terminal cancer.'

Before RR could even register that fact, before he realized that this was what motivated Fudd to change, what Sylvester too found out and therefore allied with Fudd since he was dying anyway, and more importantly, this meant that Fudd was a man who didn't care what he did, didn't care that he got killed doing it, before RR could register the full impact of this information…

The grenade hidden in Fudd's hands exploded. He had pulled the pin behind his back after hearing RR's last words, and now the three second timer had done its job. There was an ear splitting blast. Bugs watched silently as the fire consumed both RR and Fudd, instantly forming a cloud of smoke around them. When the smoke cleared, all Bugs could see was ashes of the late RR and Fudd, blackened and dead.

Elmer Fudd was gone, but he had redeemed himself, just in time.

It was truly over, Bugs thought, staring hard at the dead ashes. But he quickly superseded that thought. No, it wasn't over.

There was something troubling him, something he had to take care of.