Bast materialized in the decimated clearing and looked around in distaste.
"Ew," she muttered. "What the hell happened here? Sobek throw a dinner
party?"

She closed her eyes momentarily as though visualizing the layout of the
clearing then, with a motion of her hand, pulled a control panel out of the
ground, it's organic curves and slim pedestle making it a part of the
forest around it. It was not a necessary piece of equipment, but Bast found
that it helped her concentrate. Sighing, she began to type in a series of
coordinates.

Slowly, rended pixels began to collect around the ravaged trees and bushes,
fusing as they came into place, rebuilding the landscape like a giant
jigsaw puzzle. Some of the data was damaged and discoloured the foliage,
but a brief correction and save solved that problem admirably. Once the
background was reconstitued, all there was left to do was reassemble the
swirling jumble of predominantly red and yellow pixels which were all that
was left of the unfortunate Snarf.

Bast sighed. "Not enough here to do anything with," she said to herself,
musing on what she should do next. Decided she keyed in the desired
function. "Initializing erasure program 'Het-Hertra'," the cat-woman heard
in that portion of her mind reserved for game functions. "Active file
'snarfer.cha' cleansing...5...4...3...2...1. Active file 'snarfer.cha'
cleansed."

Bast watched as the swirling of displaced pixels was reduced bit by bit,
finally disappearing entirely. Snarfer had been fully removed from the
game.

Fingers flying over the keyboard, Bast demanded that it be replaced by it's
"sleeping" file, the stats of all established characters that were kept
inactive within the game itself. It wasn't long before the shape of Snarfer
reformed and lay, apparently comatose, in the restored clearing. He would
remain in that state until actions in the game required him to awake and
act in keeping with his character.

Bast dismissed the control console, allowing it to be reabsorbed by the
virtual earth before turning and vanishing once again.

*********************

"What the hell is that?" asked Wilykat curiously, cocking his head to catch
the sound. They'd been walking through grass for what seemed forever. There
were trees on the horizon, but they didn't look like any trees he knew of.
For one thing, they were too orderly.

"I dunno, but it sounds mechanical," replied Ruka, also stopping to listen.

"If you don't mind my saying," began Rhythm, "it rather sounds like...well..."

"Berbils," grinned Xahji.

"Berbils," confirmed Rhythm.

"Hey! If we're near the Berbil Village we can get directions to Cat's
Lair!" cried Gatotrueno, hoisting the white cat in the air. "What do you
think about that, Jet?"

"Reowwwr!" protested the feline, flattening her ears.

"Sorry," grinned Gato sheepishly, lowering the cat so that she could climb
onto the Thunderian's shoulders.

"My thoughts exactly," agreed Ruka. "I vote we head over there and see what
information we can gather. Or allies we can make."

"Oh boy," smirked Wilykat as they headed for what was now thought to be an
orchard, "we get to spend the day with cybernetic teddy bears!"

*********************

"Hurry, Panthro, hurrry!" wailed the furry creature.

"I'm going as fast as I can, Snarf. Did the Sword show you where Snarfer
was?" asked Panthro, turing to his lord.

"Not precisely, but it appeared to be near the Berbil Village," replied
Lion-o. "I could probalby pinpoint the location from there. Besides which,
if Snarfer's in trouble, that's where he'll run to."

"If you're suggesting that we pass by the Village first, just say so,
Lion-o," said Panthro, making a slight course correction.

"Do you think that decision is sound?" remarked Tygra from the tank's hold.
The roof was open, allowing the tiger access to the energy rifles. If the
thing which had attacked Snarfer *was* a mutant, there were no doubt more
waiting to make an appearance.

"Yeah! Snarf, snarf...my nephew's being attacked by Mutants and you want to
make a social call?" moaned Snarf.

"What else would you suggest?" asked Lion-o. "All I could see was that they
were in the woods surrounding the orchards. We might be able to narrow down
the search area if any of the Berbils remember something out of the
ordinary."

"Not to mention forming search parties," added Panthro.

"Mrr...If anything happens to him, I'll never forgive myself," wailed Snarf.

"Please, Snarf, try to relax," begged Tygra. "You'll do Snarfer no good
worrying."

"I wish you'd chosen to stay at the Lair," agreed Lion-o. "You know how
irrational you can get when you're upset."

"No!" snapped Snarf in one of his rare moments of anger. "Snarfer is *my*
nephew and I won't stay behind while some psychotic Mutant does Jaga knows
what to..."

"Alright, Snarf, alright!" soothed Tygra with a shaky chuckle. "You're
*here* aren't you? We'll do our best to get to Snarfer as soon as
possible."

"You'd better," sniffled Snarf as the tank rumbled into the vicinity of the
Berbil Village. "Poor Snarfer..."

*********************

The alarms of Cat's Lair bleeped a low-grade warning signalling the
approach of unidentified intruders. Wilykat, monitoring the main console,
jumped in surprise as his sister lept from her seat to join him. "What is
it, Wilykat?" she asked excitedly. Company was rare enough in the form of
friends and enemies, nevermind complete strangers.

"I...I don't know," admitted Wilykat sheepishly, turing the cameras on to
the front of the Lair. He has been too busy trying to track the
Thundertank's progress. "It...it looks like a human - sort of - a largish
cat and...and..."

"A Thunderian cub!" shrieked Wilykit excitedly. "And she looks just our age
too! Oh, it'll be great to have a friend our age! Let the drawbridge out,
Kat! I wonder where she's been hiding..."

"Wait a minute!"

The Thunderkittens' hands stopped mid-way to the switch which would extend
the drawbridge and allow the strangers to cross. Cheetara, drawn by the
bleeping alarm, was approaching the screen. "I know how exciting it would
be to find more Thunderians," she sympathized, "but we can't afford to jump
to conclusions based on appearances."

"But they're unidentified," protested Wilykit.

"Mumm-ra's been known to disguise himself well enough to pass by the
systems before," reminded the cheetah, "although I will admit that he's
never posed as three different people."

"Can't we let them across, Cheetara?" asked Wilykat. "We don't have to let
them in...we can meet them out front."

"Correction, Wilykat, *I* can meet them out front," said Cheetara fondly,
ruffling his hair. "You two will stay here and monitor the situation. I'll
need your help if they turn out to be foe instead of friend and it will be
easier for you if they don't know that you're here."

"But why can't *we* go meet them?" pleaded Wilykit. "We never get to do
*anything*..."

"When you develop a sixth sense, I'll consider it," replied Cheetara with a
wink before leaving the room.

*********************

"Would it be too bold of me to make a request?"

"That would depend on the request, Rhythm...I mean, I'm not bending over
for you or anything," replied Wilykat, deadpan.

"Well that was rude," sniffed Gato. "What is it, Rhythm?"

"I would appreciate it if, in battle, you would refer to me as 'Wind',"
said the weather worker. "I was thinking of superheroes when I made my
character and I'd like a code-name for it like superheroes do."

"Sounds good to me," said Ruka, "although I imagine some of the other
characters are likely to be confused at first. Any reason you chose
'Wind'?"

"Seemed to fit don't you think?" grinned Rhythm, as a mysterious breeze
sprang up, causing his hair to flutter.

"It is at that!" laughed Gato. But before Ruka could add his own comment,
they had arrived.

"Huh," mused Xahji, "the buildings are smaller than I thought they would be..."

"But bigger than mushrooms despite the fact that this looks a hell of a lot
like a Smurf village," added Wilykat.

"Don't look now," said Ruka, "but I think we have company."

Indeed, the group was being surrounded by tinny-voiced bears who seemed to
be discussing their presence in low murmurs. They formed a tight ring
around the travellers who, though they knew the Berbils were allies,
couldn't help taking a defensive stance. "Er...we come in peace?" said
Gatotrueno cautiously.

The Berbils pressed in closer...

*********************