Hiya! I'm still here, really... just went out of town for a couple of 
days, then was extremely sick (bedridden, missed two days of classes and 
a day of work) for a while, and couldn't sit up at the computer long 
enough to wade through my mail, never mind write my SB contributtion... 
but I'm here and still alive... bear with me...

admin: Just as X's gun has a different setting each time, I was kinda 
thinking\ that maybe every time Red glances at X (which seems to happen 
quite a bit) it should be different. Just a thought.


The plot thickens...

   Red looked around grinning at the familliar... sorta interior of the 
River Front Lizard's Lounge. X looked completely livind, but just so 
ky000t as a squirrel. Red giggles and then wriggles a little, remembering 
the fur that had strangely sprouted from his scales. He sratches the fur 
off, leaving his normal scale finish and tooks stock of the situation.
   "Okay, we're in cyber-space, which means... which means I should be 
able to go anywhere in the world in no more than a few seconds... barring 
firewalls from the CDA... hmm... X, I have an idea." X walked over to 
Red, carrying her large bag of puffed wheat and they discussed quietly 
for a while while the rest of the troupe had fun in the pool, getting to 
know Orelious and resting on the warm rocks.
   In a moment, X raised her head, "No! Absolutely not Red, you're not 
taking the new Dinosorceror of Lava Dome ]I[ to that insane friend of 
yours. I won't allow it!"
   Red chuckled, and pointed at X's bucket of KFC, "What are you going to 
do? Give me a heart attack? C'mon Dino... I have to take you somewhere." 
Red walked over to Dino the fox who was talking with Orelious about 
exactly how they got here and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, you... 
let's go. I've got someone you should meet."
   Dino turned, "Oh? How do we get there?"
   "Easy," replied Red, "we telnet."
   Red did some fancy little spells and suddenly, Dino and Red were gone 
in a flash of data. X scowled, then walked over to Orelious. "Okay, 
what's this about Daleks taking over the Muck?"
   "It's true. They're everywhere. They're herding the furs into various 
spots and locking them in. We've got to stop this." Orelious went on to 
explain how long this had been going on and th resistance movement that 
had been thus far rather innefectual.
   X smirked, "Well, what do you expect us to do?" indicating the regtag 
remnants and her own ring baloney.
   Orelious sighed, "Well... we've gotta do something."

[Meanwhile...]

   Red and Dino popped out of a computer terminal that someone had left 
on and logged in at the University of Ottawa, then left the room. Red's 
head poked out cautiously, then he turned, "The coast is clear, c'mon 
out, Dino."
   Soon they were flying the skies above Ottawa. Red turned his head to 
Dino, "Now first of all, the fox look has got to go if you're gonna meet 
his guy. When I tell him that you're the Dinosorceror of Lava Dome ]I[, 
you've gotta be the Dinosorceror of Lava Dome ]I[." 
   Dino dissapeared in a puff of multi-coloured smoke and was himself 
again. "Thanks Red. I like fur... but not on me."
   After a few hours of flying, the pair had reached some forested area 
in Northern-ish Ontario, and Dino could see a large, frozen-over lake. 
"Oooh, Red can we go skating?"
   Red chuckled and started to dive, "No, but that is where we're headed."
The spiralled down for a landing in the clearing and Red looked around, 
"Hey! Canny? Are you there?"

[meanwhile]

   X took a step outside the RFLL and saw an anthropomorphic cat walking 
by. She was a little hungry so she dropped into her raptor hunting 
posture and promptly fell flat on her face, a squirrel being built 
slightly different from a raptor. She stood up and swore a streak that 
made everyone blush. X turned to Orelious and looked ar hir in the eyes 
fiercely, "Okay... turn me back this instant!"
   Orelious blanched before the viscious squirrel (still seeing behind 
those cute eyes the glare of the raptor) and stammered a little, "Well... 
uh... okay, hold on a sec..." Orelious had a little conference with 
hirself and then raised hir heads, "Okay, you get turned back if you help 
us with the daleks. Deal?"
   X chittered and agreed, grudgingly. She hefted her foot-long meatball 
Subway sandwich and headed out. She saw a dalek a few moments later, ran 
up to it and tore it to shreds with her squirrel claws. (It seems the 
predator instict held through.) She yelled back, "C'mon the rest of 
you... help out or we don't get out of here!" and something, once again 
rather predatory, scared the others into attacking, too...
   ...pretty soon there were daleks limping around Furry with mustard, 
ketchup, tomato sause, cookie dough, instant pop-up Pillsbury breasticks, 
and pepperoni stuck to them, shorting out major functions, and furries 
attacking them and dumping them into the pond in the park.

[meanwhile]

   Dino looked through the trees to see if he could see this "Canny" 
person. Red continued to call for a while until a tall, burly man wearing 
red plaid flannel and a red toque stepped out of the woods.
   "Hey, how's it goin' eh?" said the man.
   Red laughed and hugged the man, "CAnny, good to see you again. How's 
it been with you, eh?"
   The two launched into a conversation which Dino couldn't keep track of 
because of all the "eh's" and other such Canadian idiosynchracies... it 
was like listening to another language. Finally, Red called Dino over, 
"Dino, this is Canny, an old friend of mine."
   Canny shook Dino's hand warmly, "Glad to meet'cha, eh?" he said, and 
Dino forced back a giggle to respond, "Yeah, nice to meet you." 
   Red spoke up, "Canny, Dino here needs a new weapon. I figured you'd 
have something here he could use."
   Canny grinned, "Oh, of course, eh? Right this way, eh?" and the walked 
through the woods to the stream that fed the lake. "This water has, like 
magical properties, eh? If you freeze it into the mold of a weapon, that 
wepon can, like, never be damaged, eh?" He waved his handa and the snow 
parted over a large collection of sword molds, all with frozen blades 
inside. "I think it might have somtin' to do with the maple syrop in the 
water."
   Dino's jaw dropped as he saw the wonderful weapons, and he reached out 
to take one, when Red stopped him, "Dino... do you actually know how to 
handle a sword?"
   Dino blushed and was forced to answer no, but Canny just smiled and 
took out a big hunk of ice with a mold inside. He pulled an axe out of a 
nearby stump and chopped the ice strategically until it broke, revealing 
a weapon almost ideantical to X's blaster, but made entirely of ice. Dino 
reverently picked it up and examined it, checking the settings to see if 
they were the same as X's, but it seemed as thought this one had a total 
different group of settings [admin: haha! threw you another curve!].
   Canny handed the weapon to Dino, "That's, like, not recommended for 
internal use, eh?" then dissapeared into the trees.
   Red chuckled, "Famous parting words, I guess... c'mon Dino, let's find 
the others and get back to adventuring."

[meanwhile]

   Not a single dalek was left operational, and X was nibbling the end of 
her high-power Skor bar, looking meaningfully at Orelious. "Okay, you 
promised, now I wanna be a raptor again!"
   "Okay," said Orelious, "but you gotta take me with you!" and suddenly, 
all the altered furs were normal again... at that exact moment, Red cast 
a spell outside of cyber-space and drew the group, minus ORelious back 
into the real world. Orelious sighed and flopped down next to the pool... 
"Oh well..."

   X looked around the interior of the Turdis again, "Hey... we're back." 
then saw Red and Dino, the latter toting and icy version of her own gun. 
"Oh no... Red you didn't take him to see Canny, did you?"
   Red grinned and nodded the affirmative while Livingstone walked up to 
the gun, sniffed it, licked it and promptly got his tongue stuck to it, 
and whined until Benjamin came and tugged him free. 
   Dino stepped forward, looking in control and much more assured of 
himself with the gun, actually an imposing figure... everyone in the 
Turdis, except Livingstone who was whimpering, was duly impressed. "Well, 
we're armed and dangerous now... let's go find some more of that gadget!" 
and almost as if it were timed, the Turdis shook. Jerhevon ran to the 
radar to see what was going on and blanched. "Uh.... guys?"
   As the group went outside, they saw a huge creature stopming towards 
them and for once, Dino wasn't even remotly turned on. The thing was a 
large ape-like creature like a cross between King Kong and the mammals 
from Primal Rage. Suddenly, five teenagers leapt out of nowhere and 
yelled! 
   "It's morphin ti-" but were cut off by a timely stomp by the creature, 
killing them all instantly.
   Dino decided now was the time to try out his blaster so he warmed it 
up to "Momma said knock you out!" and let if fly, but the creature raised 
a hand and a force field stopped it. Jenn then tried hers at "Raptor's 
Revenge" to the same effect. 
   The creature sent a field flying to the group, to seperate Dino from 
the others, and Red flew through at the last moment. He yelled to Dino, 
"You set that thing on high beam and I'll distract it!" He flew to the 
monster and buzzed it repeatedly, confusing the slow-witted mammal. Dino 
was setting the blaster at "And you theought the SUN was hot?" and tried 
to aim at the monster, was wasn't sure he could without hitting Red. Red 
sent telepathically, *Just do it!*
   Dino let it fly.
   Red and the monster were englufed in a huge flame, then an explosion. 
The force field dropped and some prism scales landed at Dino's feet, 
thrown there by the explosion. The gun melted in Dino's hand but he 
didn't notice. HE and the rest of the group sat and looked at where Red 
and the monster had been.
   Dino managed to speak first, "He's... dead..." and the rest of the 
group waled in silence back into the Turdis. The rest of the day was 
spent silently until they all headed off to bed.
   X head Dino in his room... talking to himself. She walked in and sat 
on the bed, "You wanna talk about it, Dino?"
   "I killed him, X... I blasted him... I shouldn't have done it." he 
rolled over in his bed and sighed deeply. X laid down next to him and 
nuzzled him, comforting him. Dino turned around and hugged her, and X 
kissed him. Later that night, the were both asleep, in each other's arms 
under the sheets.
   X lifted her head sometime before dawn and saw two glowing eyes. She 
started, until she recognized them, "Red!"
   Red lifted a talon to his lips and shooshed her, and she could see 
that he was insubstantial. "You're a ghost?"
   "Well, not exactly. Anyway... Dino's gotta know it's not his fault." 
He grinned, looking at the two, "How was he?"
   X grinned, "Well, not bad for the first week in a new body... Red, 
what'll happen now?" a tear was forming in her eye.
   "Don't worry X... things'll go fine. Maybe more chaos will be around. 
We'll see... I've been talking to plot hole... oh..." and he faded away 
without a sound. X curled back up and drifted off again.
   Until the next morning when the whole Turdis was awakened by a 
terribly loud klaxxon. Everyone simultaneously leapt from bed and ran to 
the control room where they saw a cracked, multi-coloured egg and a tiny 
little baby white dragon with swirling coloured eyes chewing merrily on 
some wires under the control panel. Dino ran over and picked him up, 
reading the little nametag on the baby dragon's chest. "My... name... 
is... RED!"
   X grinned and leaned back, accidentally pressing the same 
skunk-coloured button that Red had pressed earlier, and Orelious was 
suddenly in the room with them, "Oh... hi... I knew you guys would let me 
come!"