"ERIC!" The Epics had been saying that all day, but, since the first day he lived with them, this was Eric's first day where he actually enjoyed his day with all the commotion. As for his friends Bugs Bunny and his faithful servants, this was the first good day they had in their careers too. Because they found the Orb of Bravery, they were laughing and having fun and keeping their spirits up despite the Epics' bullying.

By dinner time, Jack and his sons were at the dining table waiting for their food. "ERIC!" shouted Jack. "How long does it take for you to cook something?"

"Yeah! Don't you know a spell that will cook everything in about five minutes?" added John.

"FYI," cried an appearing Eric, scaring John whose face fell in the gravy boat, "you've been sitting here for about fifteen seconds and here's your food." He clapped his hands and a giant feast of fruit, vegetables, garlic bread, pizzas, burgers, pork, chicken legs and olive oil and vinegar appeared on the table. Eric blew on the giant red candles in the middle and they lit up. He began to walk away when –

"Hey! Wine!" ordered Jack.

"Oh, I work hard all day," whined Eric in a feebly girly voice. "My friends and I try to impress you and we don't even get paid a – "

"Give me a bottle of Jacob's Creek!" shouted Jack.

Eric slyly pointed to the table and a bottle of red Jacob's Creek appeared in front of Jack. Jack poured it himself and began to drink it.

"Hey, Eric!" shouted Jim. "A bottle for us each!"

Eric pointed each to where Jim and John were sitting and they each got a bottle of red wine. They began to drink it.

Eric muttered a few words and the Epics' heads fell onto the table. They had barely even had a mouthful.

"I take it ya wished them pleasant dreams, Doc?" asked Bugs.

"Yup," replied Eric. "Easy enough for Sleeping Spell No. 45 to work."

"No. 45?" exclaimed Bugs. "Eh, what about, uh, the other 44 spells?"
"Not practise them much," answered Eric. "No. 45 is the only sleeping spell I've been good at."

Danny the Dwarf came by for the food. "Can we have a bite before we go to the Island of Talandlent?"

"Talandlent?" said Eric. "The island that where talent was invented?"

"Why not just call it Talent Land?" suggested Bugs. "That would make more sense than usin' anagrams."

"That's where the word 'talent' came from," Eric told him. "And all the other different languages, too, whatever word they use for 'talent'.

"Anyway, that's the island the next orb we have found in the scrolls is on," Danny explained, reaching for an apple without looking. "It's near the British Isles." He opened his mouth and closed it, thinking he's hit a hard apple. He looked down to see that he did not have an apple in his hand or anything in it at all!

"You've had your bite now!" laughed Bugs.

"Very funny!" snapped Danny.

Eric waved his hand and the table was cleared. "That's fake food, Danny," the young sorcerer told him. "I put it there to fool the Epics. But when we go to the island, we'll get a bite to eat, I promise. Now go and get the rest of the guys here."

Shortly, the rest of the gang arrived.

"Let's get on the table," ordered Eric. They all did. "Now I will chant the spell to get us to this island of Talandlent and, when I clap or stamp or nod, you just copy the same."

"Why's he usin' these nursery rhymes as spells, Choc?" whispered Bugs.

"Because they are the oldest spells, Bugs," replied Choc. "These 'Nursery Rhymes' as you know were once spells that were – "

"Guys, may I begin?" asked Eric.

"Sorry," Bugs and Choc apologized.

Eric chanted the spell and when he clapped and stamped and nodded his head, they all copied him and they vanished into thin air.

Then Jack's eyes opened, his mouth was breathing and his body was picking himself up.

"Wake up, boys!" shouted Jack. No one seemed to hear him. "WAKE UP!"
Jim and John quickly woke up.

"It's finally working!" Jack grinned evilly. "Eric is getting the orbs thinking he's going to end our magic including his and, when he gets all of them, we'll steal the orbs and his magic and put it to good use."

"You mean, like make the world fair and more happier and less stress and – " John babbled on.

"No, rule the entire world, you twit!" snapped Jim. Then he turned to Jack. "But, Father, neither he nor we can do anything without the long-hidden Acme Orb."

"That's why you sent your best men to find it, is it not?" said Jack.

The only thing Jim feared was his father. "Yes, sir. Don't worry. They'll find it."

Then lighting appeared behind him. The Epics turned to see three CGI soldiers panting in the dark corner.

"Sergeant, have you found the Acme Orb?" asked Jim.

"We found it," reported the Sergeant. "But we lost it."

"WHAT?" exclaimed Jim.

"James Epic!" yelled Jack. "Are these really your best troops?"
"No, sir," sighed Jim. Then he turned to the soldiers. "Tomorrow, you will be sentenced to – "

"But, sir, it wasn't our fault!" pleaded the Sergeant. "We found it, but then came this cartoon blue bunny who took it and we chased him but he was stopped by a policeman who threatened us with a hose pipe – "

"STOP!" yelled Jim. "Blue bunny? Policeman? Did your automatic cameras take any pictures?"

One soldiers pressed a button on his arm. Pictures came out of a slot on the stomach. Jim took them and looked at it. He smiled. "I have a great idea!"

"Something smells like it's burning plastic," moaned Danny as he, Eric and the rest of his friends were walking through dark woods.

"Can't be," said Choc, surveying the ground. "This ground is made out of clay."

Bugs was digging a hole. "Building homes ain't ever been any easier."

"When you found out that the orb was on this island, Danny, did it say anything about the island at all?" asked Eric.

"All it said was that it was above England," Danny told him.

"Hmm, because I have a funny feeling – " Then Eric looked up to the sky. "Hey, Shou Off! See anything?"

"I see a building about two miles away," reported Shou Off. "It's made out of wood and there are people coming out of it. They looked like clay models but they're moving like people."

Soon they arrived at the wooden inn called The Wood's Inn. They walked in and saw that everything that Shou Off said was true. The people inside was a mixture of large dolls with moving joints and moving clay models.

"I knew it," said Eric. "It's a stop-motion animated island."
They went to sit at a table and looked at their menus. Their faces made the food looked promising. They began to like this Inn already. It was large and cosy and warm.

Eric clapped his hands and clay waiters were already around the table. They put the food down on the table. Eric's friends smiled because he had got them the correct food they wanted to eat.

"Beats orderin'," said Bugs, drinking carrot juice. "But, Eric, why can't ya just live here and keep your magic powers here?"

"I tried running away from the Epics once," Eric told him. "I went out to sea to find Zack and Diamond. I spent six months but I couldn't find anything, so when the CGI search party for me finally found me, I gave up and I decided that's why I must end my powers once for all. Besides this is an unknown island – an island that Jack does not know about. If he did, it wouldn't be like this anymore. That's why certain places in the world like this island or that Anime village or your cartoon land in Hollywood are safe from the rule of the evil." Then loud annoying music cut him off. Everyone in the inn covered up their ears.

"But not from annoying music!" moaned Danny.

They all looked ahead to see the band playing on the stage on the other side of the inn. A black robbed guy who looked very much like a Nazgul rider was on the drums. A blonde Fireman Sam-type of elf was playing the guitar. A clay-animated green orc was on the piano. "They're missing one thing," said Choc through the loud noise.

"The lead singer," said Eric and Bugs together.

There was a black microphone on a stand unused. Then behind it singing came out of it.

" Dip-a-dough-in-soup " sang a female voice. " Sip-a-lemonade " Something bright and sparkling came above the microphone. It was a Postman Pat-like type of animation fairy! She was a black fairy with blonde hair and white wings. She was wearing a purple dress. " By the way, check out the hay for you long-faced horses " She sang the last words out of tune.

"Amazing!" muttered Sweet Corn sarcastically. "Ripping off one of the greatest songs of all time."

"Eh, it's a Disney song, Sweet Corn," said Bugs, "and as this is a Warner Bros. story, we can take the Mickey Mouse outta them."

"Oh, yeah," said Sweet Corn.

"Eric, can we take this food as takeaways?" asked Danny.

"Let me think," said Eric, putting his finger on his chin. Then all the food on the plates was now in cardboard takeaway boxes and their drinks were in plastic cups.

Eric and his friends walked out of the Inn. They had just starting walking away when they heard the door at the Inn opened and three figures flew past and landed in front of them. It was the band! Eric and Bugs helped them up.

"Don't give up, guys," said Eric kindly. "Like Rocky Balboa says, 'Winning is all about how hard you can get hit and keep moving on, not how hard you hit.'"

"Thanks, mate," said the orc, putting out his hand. "The name's Ugster."

Eric shook his hand. "My name is Eric Epic," he said, as he took his arm away. But Ugster was still shaking hands with Eric's arm! He was holding a plastic arm.

"What? How did you – "

"I'm a sorcerer," Eric told him.

"Wow!" exclaimed Ugster. "I thought the sorcerers were – "

"Rare!" interrupted the elf. "No one has seen one for years. Not on this island anyway."

Eric began to think about what they had just said, but he shook it out of his head and focused on the present. "Anyway, my friends and I have come to find a magic orb on this island somewhere."

"You mean the ultimate prize of winning the Mount Rock Stadium Battle of the Bands competition judged by Rock Lord Cliff Griff tomorrow?" said Ugster. "You need to be a band to even get into Mount Rock Stadium."

"Well, we'll do you a deal," said Eric. "We come with you to Mount Rock Stadium, you get into the battle of the bands and if you win, we will take the orb and you will become famous and successful."
"Eh, Eric, why don't you use a spell to make all of that work?" suggested Trolley.

"Because, Trolley, A: That spell won't work on this Cliff Griff, B: I don't like using those spells; it makes me feel like I'm no better than the Epics and C: this chapter will end quickly and the readers will stop reading the rest of the story."

"Oh, that makes sense," said Trolley.

"We forgot one thing," said Ugster. "We need a singer."
"You mean your singer is a waitress?" asked Choc.

"Not anymore," said a female voice.

Everyone turned around to see the fairy behind them.

"You guys going without me?" she said to her band.

"No way, Michelle," said Ugster. "We couldn't go without our First Lady."

"And who are our new friends here?" asked Michelle.

"I'm Eric Epic, Sorcerer and Manager of… whatever you guys call yourself," Eric told them. "Meet Sweet Corn, your new roadie. Danny, your security guard. Shou Off, your new transport. Choc, your new stylist. And Bugs Bunny, your agent.

"Agent?" exclaimed a surprised Bugs.

"Well, I'm Michelle," said Michelle, "and you've met Ugster the Keyboard guy, Jeff the guitarist and Dark Robes the drummer."

"What's drumming?" asked Dark Robes, the black robed creatures. His voice didn't sound menacing at all, but Eric's friends were still suspicious of him.

"And we're called – um, er…" Michelle couldn't think of a name for the band.

"Well, you can think of a name as you practise on our way to Mount Rock Staduim," said Eric. "Now's let's rock 'n' roll!"

He started to walk when rocks were rolling pass him and his friends and the band were rolling on them.

"We've got a long way to go!" Eric sighed as he carried on walking.

"Eh, we'll get there," smiled Bugs as he put his hand on Eric's shoulder.

Wild animals like deers, bears, owls, ducks and many others creatures (animated as if they were from Cosgrove Hall) were enjoying the gorgeous sunshine, the tasty river and the delicious greens. That was before horrible music was in the air and they got scared and frightened.

"It's hunters in the woods!" cried an owl. "Let's hide!"

And some hid in the trees, some hid under them and the big ones like the deers ran further to hide somewhere else.

The hiding animals had a peek to see who was coming. When they saw that the trespassers were just the band playing annoying music, they were really mad. They all got out.

"Hey!" shouted the owl.

The band went on, but Eric stayed behind.

"We're trying to enjoy a little peace here!" the owl went on. "Cut the racket!"

"Okay!" Bugs held a tennis racket and he cut it with a pair of scissors.

"We'll get out of your sight now," said Eric. "Sorry to disturb you."

"We'd better not see or hear from you again," warned the owl, "especially on Stop Mo FM!"

"What?" said Eric and Bugs together.
A squirrel got out a green wooden radio and turned it on. "This is Jackel Muck and this is Stop Mo FM. We will be now playing I Woke Up to Smoke."

"I woke up to smoke…" sang the voice on the radio.

Eric and Bugs rushed off and rejoined the gang.

"Eh, Doc, I know you're tryin' to help me but why am I da agent?" Bugs asked Eric.

"Because you're more famous than we are and you promote a lot of things for Warner Bros, like Tiny Toon Adventures for new stars like Buster and Babs Bunny," Eric replied.

"Oh," said Bugs. Then he turned to the audience. "This quest and this story may not make sense, but he's da the only one who makes sense."

The annoying music from the band went on and on and, by the time they made camp at the bottom of the mountain by nightfall, they were no better.

"All right, let's call it a night," said Eric.

"What sort of night should we call it?" asked Sweet Corn.

"A really chilly night," said a shivering Bugs.

"Well, you're a bunny," said Eric. "Why don't you see if there's a rabbit hotel or motel down below?"

"Why do you think I've been going underground all these times?"
"To avoid hearing our garbage music?" said Jeff.

A whistle as loud as a football referee's whistle came out of Eric's mouth. "All right, guys," he said. "Let's calm down and hit the hay."

Everyone got up and started punching bales of hay that were hanging down on ropes from the trees.

"How are we ever goin' to win this contest tomorrow, Doc?" asked Bugs.

"I might be wrong, but I have a special job for you tomorrow, Bugs," said Eric. Bugs's ears rolled up like a rolled-up paper and Eric whispered into his ears. Bugs seemed to like his idea.

"Like I always do," said Bugs.

"Like you always do," said Eric.

Morning arose and sunshine covered the entire island. It even covered up the top of the mountains, which was where Mount Rock Stadium was.

"I think it's going to be a beautiful day," smiled Eric, as he reached the surface on the mountain.

Bugs, the servants and the band, who were carrying all the equipment, were panting next to Eric.

"Well, I think it's going to be an easy day," said an American voice. They turned to see a squad of stop-motion characters including a boogyman holding a drum kit, a joint snake holding a bass guitar, a thunderbird holding another guitar, a jackalope holding a keyboard and… the Jersey Devil! Holding a microphone! They were greeted by another live-action character wearing the same clothes as Eric.

"And who are you?" asked Eric.

"My name is Eric Epic," said the man in an American voice. "And we call ourselves Nuclear Meltdown."

"That's awesome!" cried out Trolley. Everyone gave him a glare. "Sorry," he apologized.

"Who are you anyway?" asked the American Eric.

Eric knew he couldn't use his name, so he tried to think of one. Then he got one. "The name is Perry. Terry Perry. And we call ourselves…the Rock Cakes!"

Bugs and the band went 'What?' on their faces.

The American Eric and Nuclear Meltdown laughed their heads off.

"You should call yourselves the Rock Cans," said the American Eric, "because you're all going to be living in one on the street when we win this thing. Lose well!" Then the American Eric and his rock band walked inside the stadium.

Bugs, the servants and their band were nervous.

"We don't deserve to even show our faces in there," moaned Ugster.

"We might as well be dusting a record shop," moaned Daniel.

A loud referee whistle came out of Eric's mouth. "What kind of talk is that? Well, it's not… cool! It's the complete opposite of awesome. We don't want that. We want awesome! What do we want?"

"Awesome!" shouted everyone.

"I can't hear you!" shouted Eric.

"AWESOME!"

"I think I'm going deaf," muttered Eric.

"AWESOME!" Everyone shouted that word so loud that it flew him to the wall. A rock fell on top of his head. "Now that's… rock…"

He got up, but he could barely stand. He fell down and started rolling. "…'n' roll!" Then he got up and he stood on his legs just fine. "I'm sorry. I'm okay. I don't do stuff like this very often, you see. I just – Anyway, let's go in there and show the world what rock 'n' roll is!"

Everyone agreed and cheered and went inside the stadium.

They walked through the rocky corridors until they came to the rocky grounds of the stadium. There they saw the American Eric and Nuclear Meltdown performing Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like A Lady with the Jersey Devil singing. They were performing on stage in front of a lot of stop-motion creatures, including elves, dwarves, orcs and many other creatures.

Nuclear Meltdown was on the stage in front of one judge who was the stop-motion giant griffin known as Rock Lord Cliff Griff.

Nuclear Meltdown finished the song and they were greeted with a mountain of applause.

"Very good," Cliff said. "You guys are No. 1 on the top of my charts." He squawked to the right to the nearby griffins who were standing under a giant rock acting like a screen. On it were the names of the band with their ranking numbers. The griffins move Nuclear Meltdown to No. 1.

"Now we have our last contestants – the Rock Cakes," said Cliff.

The Rock Cakes walked on the stage and started playing Smash Mouth's Hang On. To both the band's and Eric's amazement, the band was playing the song very well and Michelle was singing very beautifully. Then Eric noticed that no one in the audience was impressed.

Cliff looked very bored. He squawked to the left to a griffin next to a gold gong with a red cross on it. The griffin hit the gong with a mallet. On the right, the Rock Cakes got a red cross on the charts.

"What was that, man?" snapped Cliff. "Today, we've had ten rock bands who – only one of them – will change rock 'n' roll forever. And now we get the first loser band for today! You're not even half as good as rank No. 10. Now get out!"

The Rock Cakes walked back to where they came from, but when they tried to pass Eric, he held his hand out and they couldn't walk pass him.

"What are you doing?" asked Michelle.

"Our career is over, man!" moaned Jeff.

"Wait five more seconds and your career will have begun," said Eric, looking at Cliff.

Cliff stretched his wings and he was about to fly away when –

"Wait! Wait!" shouted a strange voice. Behind the nest Cliff was underneath, a grey bunny wearing a grey and black tunic appeared and bowed before him. Eric, his servants and the Rock Cakes knew it was Bugs Bunny.

"What are you?" asked Cliff. "A one-bunny band looking for more success?"

"No, I am the oracle known as Bugacle," said Bugs. "And I have something you might wanna see." He got out a pot of water and he poured purple powder into it.

Cliff looked into the water and saw that all the top ten bands had something inside the instruments they were playing and the microphones the singers were singing with. They had something inside each of everything – an IPod! An IPod in each instrument and each microphone to make each band sound just like the song and the original singer. The singers were just lip-syncing and the band members were just putting on an act.

Cliff looked at Eric. "You, magic dude!"

"How do you know I'm a magic dude?" asked Eric.

"I just know! Now just prove this vision is true," he ordered.

Eric walked to the centre of the stadium and clapped his hands. With the exception of the Rock Cakes, all the instruments and microphones were in pieces and the IPods were in them just like Bugs's vision showed.

"Rock Cakes, replay your song," Cliff ordered.

The Rock Cakes got their instruments out and they played Hang On again. This time the audience loved it and so did Cliff.

After they finished the song, Cliff flew to the centre of the Stadium. "It is my pleasure to announce the winner of this 77th Mount Rock Stadium Battle of the Bands Competition which is… Rock Cakes!"

Everyone cheered and applauded.

"Furthermore," went on Cliff, "I am totally honoured to reward this cool band a sum of one million shiny golden coins."

Everyone cheered and applauded more, as the Rock Cakes received about a dozen wooden chests filled with golden coins.

Then Cliff flew to Eric. "As for you, young wizard, here is the Orb of Patience for helping the band."
"Thank you, Your Lordship," smiled Eric as he took it and put it in his pocket.

"It's been a long time since I saw a wizard or a witch," said Cliff, "but you are absolutely nothing like them. You're more totally awesome. You are the best. Keep rocking."
Eric wanted to know more, but Cliff flew away before he could ask.

Bugs rejoined Eric. "How did he know dit was ya who provided the magic, Doc?" he asked.

"He must have met more wizards and witches than I have," said Eric. "He must know magic and a magic person when he sees one."
"Well, let's get out of here before someone else notices you," said Danny.

"Not yet," said Eric. He walked to Nuclear Meltdown and walked to the American Eric. "Hey, American remake of me, I have something to show you as a token of no hard feelings."

He reached into his pocket and gave him the Orb. The original Eric's friends couldn't believe their eyes.

The American Eric gratefully took it. "You probably have the season reasons why I'm doing all of this, too… Eric."

"Are your friends a mermaid and a really cool but strange dude?"

"Were you adopted by an evil man who rules the world with his two sons?"

They smiled as each other and shook hands.

"Hey!" shouted two British voices. The Erics turned around to see two young live action men standing there.

"That's my stepbrothers – the American Jim and John Epic," the American Eric told the original Eric. "I've got to go. Good luck."

"Come on!" shouted John in a British voice.

"Father wants his haircut four hours ago," snapped Jim in a British voice.

The American Eric followed his brothers away.

"That American remake of Jim and John don't sound American to me," said Sweet Corn.

"That's cause they don't know how to Americanise stuff," moaned Bugs. "Not even da writer of dis story. Nothin's makin' sense. I just wanna go back home to America."

"Well, the sooner we find these three remaining orbs, we'll free the world from magic and you'll go back to America as a hero, Bugs," said Eric. "But not tonight because I'm rocked and rolled up. Let's rock out of here."

"Wait!" cried Michelle. "We'd all like to thank you awesome guys for helping us win this competition and giving us a career."

"You're welcome," said Eric, as he rejoined his group. "Before we go, we're going to do a little magic dance to teleport us away, but we need some music."

The Rock Cakes played plain rock music and Eric and his friends were dancing like Michael Jackson. But Trolley was no good at dancing and he fell over and landed next to the dining room table. He picked himself up and saw the rest of the gang picking themselves up on the table in the Epics' dining room.

"Two down, three to go!" cheered Eric.

"But didn't ya gave the orb away to da American remake of you?" asked Bugs.

Eric got the Orb of Patience out. "I gave him… a copy."

"Why?" asked Trolley.

"Because if I was in his position and I was a British remake of him, I'm sure he would've done the same for me," Eric said. He saw that the bodies of Jack, Jim and John have disappeared. "The Epics are in bed. Let's go and celebrate our success! In the kitchen! Everything on me!"

"We don't want to eat anything from your body, Eric," said Trolley.

"Yeah, you're our friend and we're vegetarians," pointed out Sweet Corn.

"And your clothes have never been washed," added Choc.

"No, I meant anything you want in the kitchen you can have," explained Eric, "and if there's a problem, I'll take care of it."

Everyone cheered as they walked out.

They happily walked through the corridors of the house. No one noticed an eye peering from the keyhole from a well locked-up door.

From the other side of the door, a CGI Soldier was looking through the keyhole. He walked down the stairs to the enormous and busy hanger. He pasted the busy CGI engineers and soldiers who were working on the CGI ships. The giant ships were manatee-shaped and the size of manatees too. The small ships were boomerangs-shaped with about six tank-like guns on it.

The solider reached the top of the balcony, where Jack, Jim, John and Jengheng were talking.

"Sir, Eric's returned with the Orb of Patience, sir," the soldier reported.

"Right, report to your ship, private," Jim ordered.

"Yes, sir," said the soldier, saluting before he left.

"So you three idiots know the plan?" asked Jack.

"No!" said Jim, John and Jengheng together.

"James, you tell me that the secret Acme Orb, according to these pictures your best spies took, is in this cartoon blue bunny and his friends and with O'Marrows," said their father, holding pictures of Zack and the Tiny Toons at the docks.

"Yes and O'Marrows is Eric's best friend and he really likes that blue bunny," Jim added.

"So, if we kidnap them, we'll get the Acme Orb and we'll get Eric to do whatever we want him to do," said John.

"That's what I said in the first place, you dolt!" shouted Jim.

While they were arguing, Jengheng turned to Jack. "Boss, what about Eric?"

"While they're finding the Acme Orb, you will speed things up for my magic son so we will have the orbs and the world will be ours!" He laughed evilly.

Jengheng joined the laughing. Jim and John joined in too. So did the entire CGI staff and army.

"Well, what are you standing there with your ugly faces?" snapped Jack to everyone. "Get out there and find them! I want them found two thousand years ago!"

The entire soldiers and staff went back to work.
"Yes, sir!" said Jim and John. Together they walked down the stairs.

"Yes, sir," said Jengheng, saluting his commander-in-chief. Then he walked down the stairs. "All right! You heard the big man! Let's go! Go! Go!"

What could Jack be planning? By the look of his evil grinning face, anyone would say his latest and most evil plan was coming close to completion, whatever it was.