Forgotten Ice

Tarka:

Twohart turned his head to listen again before shaking his head in frustration. He thought that he heard something. He twisted back to the trail and started home.

'Help'

Twohart's ears flicked up and he ran to the side of the trail. He hadn't imagined it! He looked around wildly. "Where are you?!"

'Help'

To the right. He dived into the underbrush from the direction that he thought that voice was coming from. "Keep shouting! I'll find you!"

Twohart stopped in the middle of small glade within the trees.

'Help'

It was behind him! He turned around and the world blured to him. The forest was gone and a glass door was in front of him. There was something writen on it but backwards to him. The screach and crash of a chair along with the unmistakable clich of a gun sounded be behind him. Twohart turned around once more as his mind did flip flops.

There was a Badger with a large 45 aimed at him. He was a bit fat but had a kind looking face. His voice was rumbly and soft. "I am very tired of creatures just appearing in my life. Who are you and what is it that you want?"

Twohart gaped at the Badger as the laser sight played over his forhead. "Your Calway Badger."

Rahne:

"I'm well aware who *I* am," said Calway. "What is NOT quite so clear is who YOU are and what you're doing here."

Twohart attempted to explain..."Well....I...and...I heard...someone...."help" and.... well" Twohart found herself (yeah, i know, th isn't a her) turning red. "look," said Calway. "Why don't you just come inside?" The Badger opened the glass door and walked in. Twohart followed.

As Calway set his gun on an oak desk in the center of the room, Twohart looked back at the door. The letters read....

Tarka:

Private Eye. Calway Badger. 1345 8th Street New York.

Calway walked over to the vidphone and tapped out a number. An otters face came up on the screen. "I need some help at the office. Do you think that you can come over?"

The otter nodded and the screen blanked out.

Calway turned to the strange creature before him. It didn't seem a threat. Just scared. "Ok. So who are you?"

Twohart grinned... "That was Olivia you had on the phone? Wasn't it?"

Fingering his pistal Calway looked at the stranger. "You seem to know a hell of a lot about me."

Twohart nodded. Feeling at home again. "Sure. I read all about you from your adventures!

Argon:

Twohart looked with admiration upon the visage of Calway badger...the famouse private eye that he had read about and heard stories of for years... "I have searched and searched for you and only because of that cry for help, did I find your office... By the way...what was that scream for help I heard?"

Calway motioned into the other room, where a big screen DVD TV set and surround sound stereo were set up

"It was a movie, guess I had it too loud. But you said you were looking for me... why?"

Calway looked at Twohart with curiosity and thought about how this strange creature might pay his rent on these offices this year.

Twohart sighed, "It is a long story, but it appears you have time to listen. I live in a place called Toons Furs and Fluff. I went to bed last night, and when i awoke today, it was gone. I couldn't find it anyplace. I only stumbled onto this world by accident."

"I want you to find what happened to TF&F and who or what caused it to dissapear."

Calway listened to this story with curiosity, and started to ask Twohart for details, when his office door crashed opened. Silloetted in the light from outside was the form of a female Otter. Quite lovely and angry it would appear. She looked directly at Calway. "So, you call me out of a warm bed to come down here, and do some work. I hope I'm going to get the last three months pay from you or else I'm not doing anything!"

Rahne:

Calway smiled ingratiatingly. "Olivia, if the young person here can afford it, I can give you that, and NEXT month's salary, too. This is Twohart. Twohart's home's dissappeared. Shouldn't be too hard to find, huh?"

Olivia blinked. Repeatedly. Then she advanced steadily towards Calaway and Twohart, staring straight into Calway's eyes. She stopped 2 inches from him.

"You have to be kidding me"

Calaway shook his head. Olivia looked at Twohart. Twohart's head shook. "I just woke up this morning and it was gone..." Twohart's voice trailed off when the cry of 'HEEEEEEEEEEELP!' resonated through the air at such a high frequency that the glass of the door cracked.

The three of them rushed out, and found an itsy, bitsy,...

Tarka:

Ice cube. It had two little eyes lookout out of its foggy looking body and two tiny little arms and to tiny little legs. "Help me! I am melting!"

By Twohart

Calway Badger looked at the ice and reached down to pick it up.

"Don't touch me you big warm fuzzy for brains. Just find me a nice cold ice chest."

Twohart leaned on the doorjam giggling to himself. Finding things very funny ideed. "This is better then that time that you played midwife to that cow Calway!"

Calway spun around in shock. "How did you know about that!???!?"

Twohart cocked his head. "Told you... I read all about you in your stories."

Olivia looked at Calway. "Midwife? Do tell."

Calway Grumbled. "We have to help the ice cube."

Argon:

"Yes, you warm bluddy furry nit wits, I'm turning into a pubble here...get me in a frezer...NOW!

All three of the furs blinked, and finally Olivia bent down and took the ice cube in two fingers.

"Hey..ouch..thats hot..oohh..you're melting me...ouch!"

Olivia took the cube into Calway's kitchen, full of dirty dishes and take out boxes and opened the freezer door.

Olivia looked in side, "Just as I thought..nothing here..plenty of room." Olivia set the icecube in the freezer and such the door.

A muffled voice from inside shouted, "hey..it's dark in here,,,and I can't shout all day!?

Olivia looked at Calway who looked at Twohart, "Freind of yours?"

Rahne:

Twohart's head shook."I never met talking water before..."

Olivia said, "So what the blazes are we supposed to DO with it?" Sound came through the freezer door. "You could call my mom!" yelled the ice cube.

The three furs stared at the freezer, then at each other, then at the freezer again. "You're MOM????"

Tarka:

Twohart was the first to get his stuff together... him being from a MUCK and all and Calway Badger being a made up person from real life. He reached out nad opened the door to the freezer. "Ok... What is your moms number if we might ask Cube?"

The ice cube blanched and struke a dashing pose. "My name. For your information fuzz face. Is Victor Von Ven Vic Vector. You may call me Vicvonvenvicvec for short."

Twohart blinked. "Ok Vecky. Whatever you say.. What about the number for your mom?"

The Victor Von Ven Vic Vector snorted. "Just call any place near the sea and have the person put the phone out the window facing the sea. Then I can talk with my mom."

Calway was the first to get the picture. "The sea is your mom?"

"Sure Fuzz Face. What else would be?" The ice cude pranced up and down in front of them all. "I made the mistake of going off to look for a warm blood detective named Calway Badger. Some Fat sucker that is so hard up for money that they would even take mine. We are tring to track down a rebel server admin."

Argon:

All three of the furs blinked, and as one said, "A what?!?"

Victor Von Ven Vic Vector sneered, A reble server administrator, somone who has wipped a number of places out of existance.

Calway's deductive powers started to operate, "So..what is your interest in theis rebel server admin?

"What," said Victor Von Ven Vic Vector, "You think only you warm bloods are on the internet?"

"Sorry, but don't think for a minute you all have a monopoly on MUCKs and RP games. loots of us enjoy them."

Again the three furs looked confused, "Mucks..RP games.." Calway looked at Olivia and Twohart, "Any idea what Victor Von Ven Vic Vector is talking about?"

Twohart hemmed and hawed, "Well, the place I was talking about TF&F was a MUCK. But I had no idea a character n a Calway Badger story would know about them. Tell us more Victor Von Ven Vic Vector"

Rahne:

"And a muck IS...."Olivia stared at Twohart, waiting for a reply. Twohart blinked and blushed. Olivia turned to the freezer. "Care to explain, Vicky?"

"I'd appreciate it if you'd refrained from customizing my name!!" said Vicvonvenvicvec. "An appelation such as Vicky is benath me! And it doesn't MATTER what a muck is, the point is we have to FIND the guy who's making them dissapear!"

"All right" said Calway. "I'm on the job." The badger walked off in the opposite direction to get his gun, tripping over the extension cord as he did so, and removing the plug for the fridge from its socket. The noise from workings of the fridge stopped, replaced by that hi-pitched scream.

WalksFar:

Olivia grabbed the cord and jammed it back into its socket. The normal whir of the fridgie resumed. Only whimpers came distantly from the freezer compartment. Olivia shook her head. "As if it was in any danger. That old fridge works better than Cal."

"I HEARD that. . . ." Calway reappeared. "I need some particulars."

Twohart blinked. "What would you know that we have already told you?"

"Where would I start?" Cal asked.

"The water tower, I think," said Twohart.

"Water tower?" Cal winced. Was this all a put on, or was this real?

"That was the name of the server that handled TFF. It was . . ."

Calway blinked. "Make some sense! Where do I start?"

Olivia grabbed Calway by the head and turned it sharply until his desktop computer filled his vision. "RIGHT THERE, Cal. The one thing you've been scared of for so long. THAT'S where the answer lies!"

Cal groaned. At that moment, the fridgie began to hop around in the background.

Tarka:

Twohart looked over Calways shoulder at the computer... "Wow! That is one heck of a setup that you ahve there Calway."

Olivia snorted as she headed to the kitchen to quite the cube down. "That computer is so out of date. It does not even have a 3D interface." With that she was out of the room.

Calway looked at the keys. "Ok Twohart. Is there anyone that you think that I should talk with?

Twohart thought for a moment. "You know. You might get ahold of this otter I know there. They seem to know more about what is going on then anyone else."

Calway nodded and put his fingers to the computer. The Microsoft 2010 logo came up. "Welcome to Microsoft. Today you will only be charged $5 per minute for the privlige of using Microsoft OS."

Twohart growned...

Argon:

Twohart looked at the sleek computer and the vivid graphics. "$5.00 per hur...Windows? Why not a Mac?"

Calway looked blank, "Mac..whats a Mac?"

"Macintosh..you know..the other computer company?"

Calway looked blank, "Never herd of them."

Twohart shrugged..the future was looking grim. He watched as Calway strted the voice recognition program and spoke at the computer.

"Computer tell me about..uh..Toons Furs and Fluff."

The computer clicked and then a soothing female voice spoke... 'INTERNET ARCHIVES SHOW THAT TOONS FURS AND FLUFF WAS A NOW DEFUNCT ROLE PLAYING MUCK THAT EXISTED FROM SEPT 1997 UNTIL OCTOBER 1998. IT WAS LOCATED AT MU ADDRESS STUDIO.WATERTOWER.COM PORT 7070.'

Calway spoke, 'Please connect me."

The computer clicked and buzzed, 'I'M SORRY BUT THAT ADDRESS IS NO LONGER... JUST A MINUTE...JUST A MINUTE... ONE MOMENT PLEASE...'

The computer screen flashed a message showing that the address had been connected to.. it soon flashed to read 'More information on the Message of the Day'.

Calway looked confused, "Message of the day, whats that?"

Twohart said, "Type..er..say MOTD.

Calway did so and this appeared on the screen, "The 20th aniversary meeting of the TF&F hacker/destroyers club will be held Oct 9th, 2028 at 9:00pm at the Galeic Ruins. Be there. Important.

The messag was signed....

Rahne:

Olivia stared at the screen, her eyebrows about to enter the stratosphere. "That's tonight!"

Twohart stared straight ahead. "So we'll be there," Twohart said.

"You betcha!" said V-to-the-fourth-power.

-----------

The moon was full, the stars were shining, and three furs and an insulated lunchbox containing an icecube were sitting in the brush, watching several figures approach a fire.

A voice that, with ultimate horror, twohart recognized as his good friend Damien's spoke up. "Well, it's been 20 years now...."

"Yes," said another voice. "Exactly 20 years since our greatest accomplishment, the Ultimate Eradication of TF&F. And we could never have done it without you, Damien. You're collaboration with our cause was so... thorough"

At that moment, Olivia, who was holding the lunchbox, felt a sudden lack of vibration from it, as if the ice cube had stiffened in shock.

"However," said the Voice..."There is still one.... loose end... which we did not think of until today."

Suddenly the voice corrected itself. "Actually, there are two, but let's take them one at a time, shall we? ..the first.... is... Twohart."

At that point, a small figure, in fact it could be called a teeny-tiny, itsy bitsy, and very... cubic... figure.... advanced into the light, and looked strait at the three furs (and the lunchbox).

WalksFar:

"So! It was YOU! How many other mucks have you planned the downfall of?"

Damien glared at the cube with surprise. "Yeah, what of it? Call it what you will. I joined their cause!"

One of the shadowy figures reached down and picked the cube up in a warm grip. It screamed. "HAAAAAAAAAAAALP! MOM! MOM!"

The shadowy figure chuckled. "A talking ice cube? So what? We took TFF down. There's nothing you can do about it. NOTHING!! When we're done, this feeble world will rock when we take it out, too!" It laughed. "Right now, you get to cool my coffee off!" The shadowy figure reached for his steaming cup of coffee.

"That'll be quite enough!" Calway saunteered deliberatly into the clearing, gun drawn and aimed at the shadowy figure's forehead. "Unhand that cube!"

Olivia hurried in with the lunchbox in hand. She snatched the cube from the hacker's hand and dropped it into the cold confines of the box.

The ground rumbled faintly beneath their feet.

"So what're you gonna do?" demanded Damien. "You gonna shoot us with that, you imaginary figment?" He advanced on Calway. "You haven't the bullets to hurt anything save yourself!" He saw Twohart. "Ahh . . . How convenient. You've arrived for your own execution. Now all we have to do is catch the 'putty-for brained' otter that created this excuse for a detective."