It seemed Doc' hadn't been completely successful in stopping the Auton things from replicating. I could only assume they had a 3D printer located somewhere else in the city.

All apparently made from the same identical molds, the only difference being the colors of their dresses and vests. Waste of 3D printing equipment...I think.

As stated previously, these cookie cutter fiberglass bunnies...did not smell right for fiberglass...More like motor oil and melted plastic. When they moved, they made shifting fluid sounds, almost like a dishwasher, if one used single jets of water.

Deathly still in that park, no pock-pock of balls from the tennis court, no squirrel chattering, no chirp of birds. They'd vacated the area. No sound but the wind blowing through the grass (and my outfit), distant car noises, and the bunnies...slushing.

The moment their pink eyes flashed, I raised the mirror shield, biking one handed past the Parrot guns as their beams fired.

Cedar trees caught fire. Stray beams scorched the well manicured turf. A rabbit ear got punctured and flew off its owner's shiny head. Another assembly line rabbit in a teal dress toppled to the ground with a smoking crater in its bosom.

The ear and the bunny melted into a steaming puddle.

"Yes!"

Unfortunately, still outnumbered, my success just a lucky fluke. I slung the shield's carrying strap around my neck like Captain America.

Ducking my head, I pedaled the squeaky bike downhill, dress flapping noisily with the air currents. More trees caught fire. Windows of parked cars exploded, glass everywhere. A squirrel shrieked and fell crispy to the ground.

Ka-Baf! My rear tire exploded, rubber tubing, aluminum frame and spokes. I pitched headlong off the bike, crashed into the concrete walking trail, rolled to a stop in the grass and dirt.

I raised my shield just in time to deflect more laser bursts. Shakily, I reached into my pinafore, drawing out the space gun.

Why the space gun? Why not a pistol or a chainsaw or a flame thrower?

1. A curious lack of guns and ammo in that TARDIS thing, and I had been unsuccessful in locating anything more powerful than a wielding torch.

2. Pocket dimension/clown car box.

3. I was just floating above the floor.

4. She...may or may not have a little blackened crater in her floor, cleverly concealed beneath a Get-Along-Gang TV tray, dishes, a storage tote and an iron cauldron full of bolts.

I popped out from behind the shield, cowboy-like, firing off a couple shots. Although the weapon had no kick back, I suck at shooting games...probably need glasses.

I brought down Peter Cottontail, but a Basket Bunny Clone fired another laser...then its paw opened up and shrapnel came blasting out.

"Oh shit oh shit!" I ducked behind the shield, wincing as dents appeared in the shiny metal. "Why can't these be regular bunnies?...Or Playboy bunnies, for that matter? I'd much rather deal with them!"

Even the rabbit from Monty Python would have been better than this. I glanced around for something, anything I could use as a barricade.

Pop! Pop pop pop! Pop pop pop!

I glanced off to my right. A chunky cop, with an uncanny resemblance to the dad from Family Matters, emptying a pistol into more of those 3D printed bunnies. About as effective as shooting a practice dummy.

I flinched as the rabbits reduced the officer to a smoking skeleton.

As I readied the space gun to fire at Shrapnel Bunny, Carl Winslow's' murderers turned to face me. I needed to dispatch my foe, and fast.

The sky became overcast all of a sudden. I glanced upward for a moment, then, remembering talk on the news about a solar eclipse, quickly looked away. I had more urgent matters to attend to.

I raised the space gun, aimed for Shrapnel Bunny, squeezed the trigger.

The weapon refused to fire.

I ducked back behind the shield, frowning at the stock. The weapon's little computerized readout, normally showing a smiling sun face, now displayed a frowny sun face. "Solar power?"

The readout changed to a low battery symbol, then...a pizza.

"Pizza Power? I'm a Ninja Turtle now?"

No time to think about it. Shrapnel Bunny now marched within five feet of my position, her associates closing in from my other side, pink eyes flaring. I aimed and fired the weapon.

A laser blast came out the barrel, but it felt like shaking hands with someone while donating platelets.

The drop in blood sugar made my hands shaky. My shot strayed from target, only damaging a portion of the rabbit's head.

The thing now resembled a demented version of the Terminator, one pink eye glowing from a portion of exposed metal skull. I had to fire two more times to bring the rabbit down.

My dress caught fire. While I'd been busy with Terminator Bunny, six other mechanically duplicated bunnies had gotten within firing range.

I quickly turned my dented shield their way, pounding out the flames.

"Help!"

A little black girl with beaded hair, running terrified across a playground a dozen yards from me. Colorful bunny statues fired eye lasers as the denim clad figure dove beneath a slide.

With shield raised, gun at the ready, I backed away from my enemies, edging toward the girl's location.

That's when I heard the slushing sounds behind me. The things now surrounded me on all sides, eyes flaring, paws opening to expose shrapnel cannons.

I blacked out for a moment. I had...vague recollections of running to the playground...firing the space gun...

When I came to, I had bits of pine cones all over my pinafore...and I was hairy.

Really...hairy. White fur covered my arms and legs. More medicinal side effects, I supposed.

No time to think about it. I crept through the sandbox, armed and ready as I searched for the kid. "Hello? Little girl?"

A brown face appeared in the little porthole beneath a mock pirate ship bridge. "Are they gone?"

I glanced around with concern. I...recalled maybe dispatching one or two of the bunnies, but now I didn't see any. "I...don't know...Maybe you should run on home while the going's good."

"No way! It's safer here with you, Rat Lady."

"Rat lady!" I cried. "How is that description even remotely accurate?"

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?"

I realized, to my chagrin, that, in addition to the fur, my front teeth had appeared to have grown an inch...And I had whiskers around my nose. "Okay, fair point. You seriously trust me with your life?"

She nodded.

"Let's hope you don't end up disappointed...Or dead...Or both...Can I have that candy bar?"

The girl's eyes widened. "How did you know I have a candy bar?"

"I can smell it."

"It's not even unwrapped!"

"I...know."

"What, you get sick of eating pine cones?"

I frowned at the crumbs on my apron. "I was eating pine cones?"

"You tore them mothers up!"

I supposed that explained the strange taste in my mouth. "I...I don't know. I guess fighting all those fiberglass rabbit things makes me hungry. I—"

She stuck a Snickers bar through the porthole.

"Thanks." I didn't even unwrap it, I just ate through the plastic. "Hey, you know anyone who can give me a ride to The Plaza? Or maybe borrow their bike?"

"My pappy has a squad car..."

I narrowed my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a hard plastic seat, in a place where the doors locked from the outside. But it did, at least, provide the illusion of safety. "Huh...okay...where's your—"

I sniffed. "Wait, was Carl Winslow over there your dad?"

With her eyes brimming with tears, the girl wailed like the siren on a police car. I had to crawl into the little place beneath the pirate ship thing, in the sand, and hold her until she calmed down.

I rolled my eyes when I noticed the Paw Patrol police dog on her overalls.

The girl had been too loud. A neon yellow plastic wall caught fire and melted.

I stuck the barrel of the space gun through the hole, fired twice.

I blacked out again. Vague memory of forcefully dragging the kid along and shooting a lot.

When I regained consciousness, I found myself leaning over a trash can with food wrappers all around me, the front of my dress stained with grimy residue. In my hands I clutched a leaf of lettuce and an empty package of peanut M 's.

The girl stood gawking at me. "I ain't never seen anybody tear through garbage like that! You must have been real hungry, huh?"

I shuddered, wondering why my stomach could hold it down. "Yeah, I guess so."

I glanced at the park. Although I seemed to have miraculously gained speed and strength...somehow...I wasn't Deadpool. No ninja skills. I still faced dozens of those those robotic things. "C'mon, kid. Let's get out of here."

Carl' did the typical cop thing, leaving his cruiser unlocked, keys in the ignition, engine running. I mean, What kind of moron steals a police car?'

Not literally a car. A black SUV. An ID on the dash read P. Kepler.

The man...liked Dungeons and Dragons...a lot. A little dragon statue and an oversized D20 dangled from the rearview mirror. Pewter figurines brandished swords and stuff from the dashboard and Mobile Data Terminal. A rubber sword. A Xanth novel. The CD case for The Hobbit movie soundtrack lay in a coffee cup holder, beside a...(sniff) green tea, carrot, kale (and other stuff) smoothie.

I scoffed, shaking sand out of my Mary Jane's. "This is your dad's car?"

"He gets together with his buddies every Thursday night. They call it Thor's Day. He's got a Level 22 Dwarf Paladin. I have an Elf Ranger and a unicorn. Level 17. We're catching up."

Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Rat lady, if we live through this, can you play a memorial game with me?"

"What?"

"Whenever a player dies, we get together and do a quest...To honor their memory."

I cringed. "Oh...kay. By the way, I'm a dude."

"Kinda guessed that from your voice, but wasn't a hundred percent sure. My bad, I forgot the gender pronoun thing.

"Even if I cared about that, I don't break that easy."

"385, what's your 20?" a voice called on the CB.

The girl picked up the microphone, faking a man's voice as she gave a convincing policeman's reply about our location, and talked to them in code about the incident...Without mentioning her father's death.

"Tell Percy his daughter is going to grow up to be a fine police sargent one of these days."

The girl wiped tears from her eyes. "Thank you, ma'am. Over and out."

It all felt like a bad dream. Stealing a police cruiser. In drag. While transformed into a furry mutant. It seemed to me like vague psychological symbolism, and I wouldn't have been surprised to see a unicorn and my mother in the back seat.

I unthinkingly downed the officer's smoothie. "Kid, what's your name?"

"Jessica."

Frowning at the camera pointing in my face, I shifted the cruiser into drive. "Jessica, what I'm doing is technically a felony. If I get arrested, I'm going to be very upset."

"My uncle is a lawyer. I'll testify in court for you."

I drove us out of the parking area. "Oh yeah. That's going to go over real well. Your honor, there were these giant fiberglass rabbits shooting people, so I let him borrow my dad's police vehicle."

Jessica burst into tears.

"Sorry. Poor choice of words. Your dad seems pretty cool. I wish he could have actually driven us...Unfortunately, nobody is going to believe any of this, so I'm pretty much on my way to jail. Especially since no one looks as freakish as I do. They'll have zero difficulty identifying me."

The car windows exploded. (Bunnies, of course. No self respecting cop would disrespect the municipal budget in such a way, without trying to yell me out of the vehicle first).

"I-I think you got enough footage on the cameras to lower your sentence to a misdemeanor. Could you please speed up?"

To reinforce the point, she switched on the lights and siren.

"Shut that off! You're going to get us killed!"

She silenced the siren. "Just thought you didn't want to add Speeding to your list of charges."

"I'd rather pay a fine than get incinerated."

I gave the SUV a burst of speed, but didn't floor it - Safe Driver' in an expensive police vehicle. The back windows shattered, but there's a cage back there.

A shot-up Chrysler minivan blocked the access road. Had to drive around.

I hopped a curb, drove on grass, sharp right at a looming rock wall.

A polka dot painted bunny appeared in my path - jumped the curb again, trading paint with a Dodge Viper, also blocking the street.

Out of the park's side streets, onto the main thoroughfare.

It reminded me of a scene from The Walking Dead. Burning, half destroyed cars, scattered every which way, like a petulant child throwing tantrums with his Hot Wheels...and Ronsonol. Vehicles, wrecked, parked' at a diagonal, others piled atop each other.

A silver Honda had gone turtle in someone's yard. Don't know how it got there. It would need to be traveling more than 70 MPH and...use another car or something as a ramp...while traveling in a direction no car should ever drive. The scenario seemed as probable as The Incredible Hulk picking up the vehicle and hurling it onto the grass.

With overgrown teeth on edge, I hurriedly navigated this post apocalyptic' obstacle course, speeding up whenever a mass produced rabbit (and a single fiberglass pelican in a bowler) hopped forward and took shots at the cruiser.

Shrapnel thunked hollowly into door panels. Safety glass shattered in my face as projectiles demolished the windshield. I drove with my head down. Jessica yelped and hid beneath the passenger glove box.

I sped the cruiser down a steep hill, between Borders bookstore and a Unitarian church, nearing the Country Club Plaza proper.

When an Auton got in my way, I pushed the pedal to the floor and rammed into it, slamming on the brakes immediately afterwards. The thing went flying into an artsy Plaza light post.

Jessica rightly should have flown out the window and gotten herself injured in some fatal way, but, in between having her little body curled up in the floor compartment, and tying her arm to the seat adjuster bar with bungee cords, she just got jostled.

I fired the space gun through the window opening until the rabbit melted.

I cringed when I noticed a police barricade blocking off the connecting street.

...Especially considering my recent...unorthodox driving maneuver.

A company of live cops with guns. Sure, they might have been firing at our mutual...fiberglass enemy, but our presence...more than a little distracting.

They'd been hunkered down behind temporary road barriers and steel riot shields, but when they noticed the cruiser...

Some of the men (and one woman) looked at me like Yaay! Reinforcements!' and tried to wave me down. Others locked eyes with me, wrinkled their faces and swore. One guy even turned his gun my way and yelled something I couldn't understand from so far away.

I came to a rolling stop a cautious distance from them. Parked.

"Ummm...Jessica?...This is your...uh...jurisdiction."

The girl peered over the dash, pointed to a musclebound brown figure in Kevlar. "Bernard!"

Jessica stood up, grinning and waving her arms. The woman and a burly blonde guy muttered something to the officer, and more guns pointed in my direction.

Of course, they had to duck as the bunnies shot at them...They still had a fair number on their team working on that particular issue.

Since they all had those radios clipped to their vests, Jessica got on the CB, explaining the whole situation...including the detail about her father...and Kung Fu Rat Lady.

"Tell your friend to step out of the vehicle with...their hands raised."

Shakily, I did what he said.

As I stood on the pavement, I noticed my fur coat and whiskers receding, my teeth getting shorter, like a werewolf after a full moon had passed.

A uniformed female stepped out from behind Bernard and his friends, speaking into a microphone.

A familiar voice crackled from the cruiser's interior: "Oi, Eric! Nice to see you've made a friend...Did you bring me the stuff I asked for?"