Thoroughly painted and garbed in leopard skins and feathers, Sid stepped out into the light, walking up to the very edge of the pallet, a sharpened spear held slightly behind his back. He grinned, thinking of past times he had held Maximus captive in various and sundry laboratories, always hoping to turn MaxiGood into MaxiBad. It had been his life's greatest ambition. But...now...perhaps...

...he could rid....

But the General stirred again, opening his oceanblue eyes and staring straight up at Sid. Sid clamped the tip of his tongue between his lips as Russ characters seem so wont to do, staring back down at Maximus, waiting to see his response.

Maximus blinked several times, finding it hard to focus. When Sid's face finally cleared and steadied into view, he studied it carefully for a long moment. Who WAS this? He seemed....familiar. He felt a strange pull...a connection to the man. There was nothing...no one...else...he felt any connectedness to at all. He smiled at Sid, relief writ large across his sparkly blue features.

Sid was not sure what to make of the General's smile. Maximus had never smiled at him before. His fingers clenched and loosened over and over upon the shaft of the spear tucked out of sight behind his back. It was the seminal moment in their relationship...a word not to be taken in certain contexts, but only in its meaning of "providing the basis for future development."

With great effort, Maximus moved his cracked lips. "I...know...you," he whispered.

"You do...indeed," Sid replied, still wary.

"How....? Who....?" Maximus gasped.

Sid smiled slightly, a hint of wickedness lurking in the corners of his mouth. Ah! The General was even MORE out of his gourd than the Chipman had hoped! How nice! Smile broadening, he replied, "You are my elder brother. Do you not remember?"

Maximus ran a quick memory scan. His hard drive had crashed and his files appeared completely erased. "No...I...I...seem..."

"It's all right, Brother," Sid continued. "You have suffered much because. . . because. . .of the great evil perpetrated against your sacred person by the intruders who have encamped on the far side of the plain."

"In...intruders?" Maximus did not understand.

"Yes, Brother. Intruders have gathered beyond our gates, intending you and your people great harm."

"My...my...people?"

"Yes, Brother. Your people..." and Sid made a sweeping gesture towards the still bowing Lost Tribe of Sheba.

Maximus turned his head to the side, taking in the sight of the adoring populace of the village. His oceanblue eyes widened. His people? Why did he not...? Oh, yes....the intruders. They had harmed him somehow. He managed to lift himself up on one elbow, staring at the villagers. They smiled shyly back at him, obviously very fond of him. He could not help but return their smile.

When they beheld the beneficent smile of their Great Wa-Wat, they shouted in much joy. The Wa-Wat had not only come, was not only going to let them live, but had actually blessed them with his smile!

The General responded with an even larger smile. Yes! These WERE his people!

Sid reached down, grasping Maximus' upper arm, helping him to his feet and then to the throne. The villagers gasped in awe. Their shaman had great magic! He could actually touch the Wa-Wat and not perish on the spot! Sid took note of this. A little awe might serve him well.

Maximus, still exhausted, slumped upon the throne. It was made of wood, the legs and arms carved in the form of lightning bolts many generations ago by hands not privileged to witness the fulfillment of the legend.

"Brother," Maximus gasped, "I am in great...need...of water."

Sid dipped a cup into a nearby pot and lifted it to the General's lips.

Maximus smiled at him in gratitude. "Thank you...for your great care of me, Little Brother."

Sid smiled, "Yes, I have long wanted to...take care of you...."

Just then, a tribal watchman arrived with news that a large force had begun to cross the plain, heading toward their village. Sid narrowed his eyes gravely as he told Maximus, "These are your enemies, Great One. You must defend yourself...your people."

Maximus looked down at his short sword, still amazingly-enough grasped in his right hand. Defend? This...thing...in his hand. It had...something...to do with defense....did it not? If only he could remember! He closed his eyes, flashes of splashes of blood, of tiger fur, even of an object similar to this one embedded in a tree somewhere, sparked through his vacant brain. Home. There had once been...something...about home, hadn't there? He opened his eyes again. He WAS home...wasn't he? Yes, all the faces smiling at him told him he was home. He felt a sudden, strong surge of anger. Intruders wanted to destroy his home! Even though full understanding still eluded him, he knew with all his being...somehow...that home was worth fighting for. With the rise of his anger, the blue bolts of electricity fairly flew out of him, circling round and round the throne.

Jack, looking through his telescope, commented to Joimus, "The blue glow is strengthening. I fear Maximus may be in grave danger."
                             

Joimus took the telescope into her own hands, sucking in a ragged intake of breath as she saw the blue electricity start to dance about the thatched roof of the central structure, beginning to swirl into some sort of otherworldly vortex of doom. "Where is Sid?" she asked. "I must ask him the permutations of this untoward development."

"He has been gone for some time, Joimus," replied Bunny, her cottontail rather drooped.

"What?" Jack nearly bellowed. "Gone? Where did he go?" Bunny pointed toward the far side of the village.

Jack and Joimus exchanged troubled looks. "This does not bode well...not at all," intoned the Pittsburgher seriously.

Terry strode up, completely camouflaged as prairie grass. "I'll track him," he volunteered, disappearing into the darkness between two prides of stalking lions, his equipment at the ready.

Bud, so often partnered with the K&R agent, was disturbed that Terry had gone off alone. "We must all do something," he suggested, looking at the older, wiser Captain for some masterly and commanding plan.

"Yes," agreed Cort, stepping into line beside the cop.

"I'm here," said Biebe.

"Me, too," Lachlan added, grinning fetchingly as he positioned his cap at that rakish angle low on one side of his young head.

"Guess I'll go, too," Hando said, narrowing his seagreen eyes at the line-up of what he considered lesser characters.

Character after character joined the line, even Arthur, who stood there buttoning and unbuttoning his cardigan rather nervously.

Joimus smiled at them. Why, it was quite as good as the gathering of the Riders of Rohan, it was! Just a little less equine, was all.

"HEY!" shouted Lucilla, striding forward, her little chin stuck determinedly out, "Don't forget the womenfolk! We want Maximus back, too, you know."

Joimus narrowed her eyes at the Fuegan hostess, knowing full well just HOW much the pint-sized Peep wanted Maximus back. Still....she mused...one could always use a bit more...cannon fodder. "Right, Lucilla," she said, batting her lashes coyly, "Here, you can be part of the front line of attack."

Slowly at first, the massed Peeps and Characters began to cross the vast plain toward the stockaded village.

The blue vortex of doom had grown steadily larger, greatly aided by Sid's continual whispers into Maximus' ears. Lightning cracked up and down the blade of the...thing...in the General's right hand. Gripping its hilt tightly, he lifted it up vertically before his face, his oceanblue eyes glittering as sparks leapt back and forth between its edge and the tip of his nose.

Even Sid was impressed. In all his years of nanogooish electriciosity, he had never had his charges rise up so like...like...a storm. As Maximus rose from the throne, he was a sight that even the halls of Olympus would not have contained. He looked at his younger brother. "Come," he said, his voice all deep and rumbly, "We must defend our...home." So saying, he strode toward the double gates, his people streaming after him.

The moon disappeared behind a cloud. Darkness....great darkness.... lay upon the bosom of the plain like a velvet dressing gown dropped by a hovering Valkyrie maiden. "Velvet dressing gown!" humphed BertiWise. "I didn't think Valkyries WORE velvet."

Joimus narrowed her eyes, glaring at the woman who had disguised herself as a Saint Bernard that she might pass unseen amongst the wild dogs of the Plains of Sheba. There was no time to waste....not even one moment to lose. The double gates of the distant stockade were opening and a form both precious to her heart yet startling to her eyeballs began to appear.

Teeth clamping down hard on her lower lip, she beheld the General of the Armies of the North. The earlier play of blue electricity about his form back in the bung grasses was nothing compared to the scope of it now. Even at this great distance, she could hear the snap, the crackle, even the pop of the crisply discharging charges. A form, similar in size and shape, but dressed in leopard skins and feathers, was close at his side. "Sid!" she breathed softly. "What is HE doing with Maximus?"

Jack had been studying both Maximus and Sid through his ubiquitous telescope, noting especially Chipman's pleased smile. He turned to Joimus, a worried crease upon his brow. "This is...bad," he said quietly.

"How bad?" Joimus inquired, not at all sure she really wanted to know.

"Very," he replied somberly. "Sid is...smiling."

Joimus could not completely stifle a gasp. Anything but THAT! Pressing the back of one hand hard against her lips, she shook her head back and forth. How...HOW had it come to THIS?!? A happy Sid was always a great danger...nay, a menace...to the rest of Crowedom...and, most horribly, to Maximus.

"Do you want to see?" Jack asked, offering her the telescope, but she turned away, unable to bear a telescopic view of...of...Sid...smiling.

"Hold there!" the Captain shouted as an over-eager groupling of of the cast suddenly darted ahead of the main force. He watched, horrified, as the Village People, their warbonnets, utility belts, dark glasses cast aside, swooped out, surrounded the hapless hurriers, and led them captive back inside the stockade.

"Wh...what happened?" Joimus asked, puzzled.

"It was the script, Joimus," Amanda said. "The script?"

"Yes. The script called for Lucilla to be captured and taken to the village."

"But...but...but...." spluttered Joimus, "epis don't HAVE a script!"

Little did the Pittsburgher know that Lucilla had scribbled one secretly inside the wrapper of her Juicy Fruit gum, so greatly did she want to be taken captive to the Commander of the Felix legions. The Fuegan hostess had changed everything. There was nothing Joimus could do but stand there helplessly and watch the double gates swing shut behind Lucilla and her small band of cohorts.

She turned, looking over the remaining Peeps and characters. Just WHO was with the renegade rewriter? Hmmmmm? She didn't see Ute or Jeffrey anywhere about. Nor were Hando and the former Welshwoman in evidence. And Bud? After his strange refusal to join BertiPup in Saint Bernard clothing, he had disappeared. Was he with the captured crowd....or had he gone to locate Terry? Perhaps some lioness was finding pleasure in cop crudités despite the lack of a good spinach dip? She sighed. It was too dark for the moment to discern the identities of the rest.

Maximus, too, had been surprised by the turn of events. He had thought that by swishing the thing in his hand at the evil intruders, they would flee back into the jungle. But he had not gotten the chance to swish. Not even one little swash. Sid had yelled for the Village People to capture the small band approaching alone across the plain. Before Maximus knew what was going on, the gates had swung closed again and he found himself face to face with Lucilla. Of course, despite the rewrite, the General had no idea at all of who the female intruder was.

Lucilla had hoped for that, not really wanting him to recall the poison raspberry pies of earlier days. My, how magnificent he looked to her, his biceps bulging bluely like that. She curtsied slightly, murmuring, "My Liege."

Sid observed, grinning. That Lucilla. She was a cool one. No wonder they got on so well. He caught her eye and, in response, she slowly lowered both lids, permitting the barest nod of her head in acknowledgement of his presence. Ah! She had no plans to give him away. This might prove mutually....beneficial.

Unseen, Bunny eyes watched from a small burrow under the stockade.

In the shadows behind the main structure, a large clump of prairie grass suddenly darted up behind the throne platform.