There is absolutely NO EXCUSES for this delay. Seriously, I don't know how to explain myself. You are in your full right to beat me on the head 'til I pass out, I wouldn't hold it against you. I can only sincerely ask for your forgiveness and hope that you will find it in your hearts not to despise me. Hm. I wonder if I even have any readers left that will bother to despise me by now?

You might wonder what made me finally get my lazy arse out of the wagon and finish this chapter. Well, it was actually a review from t.m.f, who asked me if I was ever gonna do anything about it. And since my intention never has been to actually not finish the story… I don't know why this review was so special. I mean, I've gotten other reviews dropping in every now and then, urging me to update. But there was something about this one that ninja-kicked me in the head and made me sit down and write the rest of the chapter. t.m.f, your review was anonymous and you didn't leave your e-mail address, so I'm thanking you here. Thanks. :)

This chapter is dedicated to RandomlyInsaneWhitePony, for the plot bunnies she provided me with and for being generally awesome. :)

Disclaimer: I borrowed TMNT from Mirage, the Gummi Bears from Walt Disney Pictures, Life, the Universe and Everything and its characters from Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001, R.I.P.) and Oscar Frankenschnizzel from above mentioned Pony. Thanks for letting me use him!

Chapter 19: Fun and games at Djurgården, part 3

Leonardo quickly raised and turned around, since his ninja instincts told him tripping over ladies wasn't very honourable. "Please forgive me, ma'am. I didn't mean to disturb you in your – Karai?!"

Karai opened an eye, then shut it again. "Please don't talk to me, Mascot. It might not seem that way to you, but I am actually quite busy – wait, how do you know my name?"

Leo bit his green lip. He didn't know whether to stay in character, or rip off the costume (in other words, abandon the silly, childish movement pattern he'd taken on when first starting the mascot act, and go back to being a cool ninja) and engage Karai in a battle of life and death. 'What would Master Splinter do?' he asked himself, and predictably enough came to the wrong conclusion.

"Karai! It is I, Leonardo, and I'm here to engage you in a battle of life and death!" He drew his swords and waved them around in some typical ninja-ish way that probably would've looked very intimidating and cool to someone else, but not to Karai since she already knew what an obsessive git he really was. She wasn't prepared for his unexpected presence, though.

Karai's eyes widened. "Leonardo?! How did you get here?" She quickly found herself, however. 'Heck, I don't want a fight, at least not here and now. Time for some female smarts.'

She clasped her hands, tilted her head, pouted and looked up at him under long black eyelashes. "But Leonardo, surely you cannot mean that? I thought we were friends. You can't do this to me. I was even going to give you a Christmas present!" This was actually true. The fact that mentioned present was an envelope containing a Christmas card with the text "So long, suckers" and enough anthrax bacteria to wipe out the whole mutant family, their friends, and possible future generations, she decided not to bring up though.

Leo slowly lowered his katanas. He wasn't sure he could trust this woman. "Really now?"

"Yes, it's true! Tell me, would I ever lie to you? Would my honour allow me?"

Leo raised an eye ridge.

"… don't answer that."

"Hrmf," Leonardo uttered, and obliged her by not answering that.

Hun had been standing in place for a long, long time, pondering over Life, the Universe and Everything, especially on whether or not Marvin would ever cheer up and get a nice little robot friend to hang out with, or maybe a mattress called Zem. As he finished his last hot dog (Hun, since neither robots nor mattresses eat hot dogs), his nose suddenly started tickling. Before he knew it, he started sneezing like shell. But it wasn't just any kind of sneeze attack – he sneezed to the Gummi Bears theme song!

The people around suddenly stopped what they were doing – walking, talking, eating, breathing and so forth – and just stared at him. Suddenly, a woman who looked about 49 and a half started singing. "Snälla och rara, helt underbara, och deras saga berättas igen…" (1) She grabbed the hand of a ten-year-old boy and looked at him encouragingly. Since he wasn't that stupid, and the Gummi Bears still was aired on Swedish television, he was on. "Hörs deras sånger som förr många gånger, djupt in i skogen där lever dom än…" (2)

Hun looked around, shocked, as more and more people joined the group of singing and dancing Swedes. He couldn't believe it. The last time he sneezed the Gummi Bears theme song, it was way back, during his years as a boy scout. His long-lost Boy Scout buddy, Oscar Frankenschnizzel, always managed to make him sneeze in tune of the silly song whenever he was around.

"Hipp hurra, för här kommer Bumbibjörnarna, studsar fram igenom sagorna, och vi får följa med!" (3)

Hun caught himself squeezing out a tear, even as he kept sneezing. He found himself missing his old friend, which he hadn't thought of in years. Why hadn't he ever sought him out? Had a beer with him maybe? (Oh, no, wait, rather a strawberry milkshake – they both had been active in the Boy-Scouts-Against-Alcohol-Since-That-Stuff-Makes-People-Do-Stupid-Things-Like-Believing-In-Pink-Aliens-And-Mutated-Turtles-And-Rats club. The good ol' times, eh? If only you could have them back.)

"Bumbibärssaften, den magiska kraften, och visst blir man stark, när man dricker utav den…" (4)

Gone to the bowling hall together? (Nah, that's not a good idea either – Oscar had a tendency to bruise easily. They had discovered this last time they went bowling, and Hun accidentally dropped a bowling ball from his index finger, where he'd been balancing it, and hit Oscar's foot, which broke.) Heck, even sending a post card would've worked! (Or not. Hun got paper cuts at least seven times a day – even the days he didn't interact with any paper products. Him trying to write a post card would be disastrous for sure.)

"Ondska och törnar, de klara små björnar, dom kämpar, och godheten segrar igen…" (5)

In some weird – or quite impressive, depending on taste – way, Hun managed to growl, whine and sob at the same time as he was sneezing. He really missed his pal.

"Hun?"

Hun almost choked on the sneeze he was half-way into as he turned around.

'It can't be…'

But it was.

There, right in front of his eyes, stood his long-lost Boy Scout buddy, Oscar Frankenschnizzel!

"Hipp hurra, för här kommer Bumbibjörnarna, studsar fram igenom sagorna, och vi får följa med!" (6)

"Oscar?"

"Och vi får följa med!" (7)

This day's visitors of Gröna Lund were now provided with a scene that seemed to come right out of a very moving movie (try saying that quickly tree times. Very moving movie very moving movie very moving movie!). What they saw was a gigantic, huge, humongous man with a platina blond pony tail, a scar on his cheek and a funny tattoo (which sounds like a splendid signalment if you wanted to report him to the cops), running to meet a much smaller and thinner man with piercing blue eyes, black hair in braids, a green fur jacket and Doc Martens boots (which isn't a bad signalment either. Let's face it – if these guys decided to rob a bank together, they wouldn't get very far).

With a sound like when a stick hits a sack of bricks, the two friends met. Hun lifted up his mate and hugged him, whereupon he nearly lost him again by squeezing him into guacamole.

"Oscar, buddy! I missed you so much!" he sobbed.

Oscar croaked something probably in the same style, while his face slowly turned blue from lack of air – his nose and mouth were both covered in the crook of Hun's arm. Fortunately, Hun discovered his friend's predicament before he suffocated and let go of him. "Oh, sorry bud. Are you all right?"

Oscar Frankenschnizzel nodded weakly while gasping for air. "So…" (phew) "… what have you been up to?"

"Me? Oh, I joined the Shredder after school. He's an evil overlord and I'm his combined bodyguard and confidant. Nothing much. What about you?"

"Well, I'm running my own business," Oscar stated proudly. "Frankenschizzel's Plumber Rats Corporation, F.P.."

"Okay, sounds great… What exactly do you do?" Hun frowned.

"Well, plumbing has to do with pipes, right?" Hun nodded and Oscar continued. "And sometimes, those pipes are really tight, right?" Hun nodded again. "Actually they can be so tight that it's hard to reach in with tools and stuff. And that's where's the rats get into the picture."

"Is it?"

"Yes! Because rats are small, so small that they can run through the pipes. You can train them to it with cheese. Plus, they're used to dirt anyway, so they don't take offence. Lots of money in that."

A few people standing nearby who had been eavesdropping rotated their index finger beside their heads.

Stefan had met up with some friends he had in Stockholm; Cilla, Mårten and Jonas. He was strongly determined on having a fun and relaxing day together with them at Gröna Lund. When they had questioned him about his worn looks, he had only told them that there had been some, uh, demanding passengers on the boat.

"Vad menar du med krävande?" (8) Mårten had asked.

"Jag vill helst inte prata om det," (9) Stefan had answered him with a dark look. And his understanding (?) friends had gotten the hint and dropped the subject.

Now Cilla handed out ice cream for everybody. (As a matter of fact they preferred cotton candy, but that stand had been trashed for some reason.) "Här har ni, killar! Blåbär till Jonas, jordgubb till Stefan, pistasch till Mårten… och en tredubbel bamseglass med allting på till mig." (10)

Mårten raised an eyebrow but refrained from asking whether or not Cilla was on her period, which probably was smart – it might have earned him a black eye.

As the four friends strolled past the merry-go-rounds, candy stands and crying children, Stefan felt the calmness return. He happily licked his strawberry ice cream and savoured the normalcy around him. No overgrown rats. No karate frogs. No megalomaniacs in pointy armour. Ah.

Then they rounded a corner and spotted Leonardo and Karai, who had decided on a compromise and were now trying to settle things once and for all with a Thumb War. They were surrounded by at least seventy people who stood in a circle around them yelling: "BRÅK! BRÅK! BRÅK! BRÅK! BRÅK! BRÅK!" (11)

"Vad i…?" (12) Mårten started, but was cut off by Jonas.

"Stefan? Hallå, Stefan, mår du bra? Vakna! Cilla, Mårten, Stefan har svimmat!" (13)

All credit for the Hun-sneezing-a-children's-show-theme-song-and-meeting-up-with-an-old-friend thing goes to Pony. She thought it all up; I just filled it out a bit. :)

If you'd like to listen to the Swedish version of the Gummi Bears theme, here's the link: http : / / www . youtube . com / watch? V = caxZfX0jt -w

1. – 7. Swedish Gummi Bears lyrics. Sorry, I don't have the energy to translate. If some Swedish-speaking person would like to give it a try, please feel free to go ahead!

8. What do you mean by demanding?

9. I'd rather not talk about it.

10. Here you go, guys! Blueberry for Jonas, strawberry for Stefan, pistachio for Mårten… and a triple sundae with everything on it for me. (This is not a literal translation, sorry. The word "sundae" confused me, 'cause we don't really have such a word over here. But it doesn't matter.)

11. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

12. What the…?

13. Stefan? Hello, Stefan, are you okay? Wake up! Cilla, Mårten, Stefan has passed out!