From the start, Nan-Cy had her eyes on a place in the assault team. She armed herself with a spare laser gun donated by the Crow army to secure a spot in the squad. Larry, who was looking for excitement since the boring party at The Shifting Sands, opted to join her, although it was beyond anyone's comprehension what the little mainstream could do to help. This was all done much to the disapproval of Commander Rick. He had decided to go with the extraction team, trying to keep as much distance as humanly possible between him and Victor. He had hoped that his friends would have done the same.

Mulder could have cared less about before mentioned situation; he had more important things on his mind. The tracking device at held up so far, but Tom Servo had stopped talking through the two-way radio sometime earlier, making the FBI agent concerned. Expecting to hear more static, Mulder stopped to checked the phone again.

"We should have brought the car. It would have been faster," Nan-Cy muttered to Rick. The feeling of anxiety was becoming mutual in the rescue party. While the tracking device was still fully working, it had led them to more and more isolated parts of Subreality. There hadn't been a sign of life since the makeshift infantry passed a bar several miles back.

Over at his cell phone, a curious look appeared on Mulder's face. This didn't go unnoticed.

"What now?" the ShadowKnight Joel inquired.

"Servo is saying 'I found her,' and keeps repeating, 'She's here, she's here!'" one of the Crow chuckled. Mike grumbled something to himself about letting the bots watch Star Wars movies.

"Not exactly," Mulder said. He turned up the volume up the phone and held it out for everyone to hear. Over the all-too-familiar four-note theme song, a conversation between two Torgo fictives could be heard:

"ThiS wAS foUNd oN tHe REd onE," the first Torgo said to the other.

"IT's lIke a TElepHOne. ThE MAsterR doSN't ApPROve Of sUCh ThiNGs," the second Torgo commented.

Scully listened attentively and summarized the discussion thus far: "I take it that the red one is Mr. Servo and 'this' is the device." Her partner nodded in agreement.

The conversation continued: "WhERe Is tHE rEd OnE?"

"tHE mASteR sEnT HIm tO sTAy WIth ThE cRUde oNe."

Gambit knew whom they were referring to. "Dat dere be Alexis. I knew she wouldn't go without a fight."

The discussion broke down to trivial subjects such as the weather. Sighing, Mulder muted the cell phone. "My guess is that the master and friends found out what Servo had on him was a two-way radio, but they don't know yet about the built in tracking device. If they did, they would have destroyed it by now to prevent us from finding them."

"So we still have a chance?" Doggit asked hopefully. He wanted to put his gun to good use.

"Right now, yes; but without Mr. Servo being our eyes and ears inside, we're at a serious disadvantage." Mulder explained.

Sean was not impressed. "Established fictives are all the same: looking before they leap and always second guessing themselves. If you got a bunch of UnWrittens out here, this rescue would be finished by now."

"Hey!" Nan-Cy yelled in disgust. "At least I wasn't created by some kid in the fif-- OUCH!" She was cut short by a swift kick delivered by Rick, who didn't want a repeat of the previous scene they had caused in the TTPCTS Club.

Sensing the tension, Mike stepped in to calm down the rescue party. "Look, I know this isn't the greatest situation that we're in, but it could be worse. The tracking device says we're getting close. Shauna, you're with the SRPD; what's out in this part of the boondocks?"

"There's not much out here other than some old houses. Those were mostly abandoned years ago after there were complaints about a local fertilizer company." Shauna answered matter-of-factly.

The ShadowKnights exchanged a glance. "Fertilizer? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mike asked Joel.

"Where else would Manos fictives make their headquarters?" Joel replied.

Teddog

----------------------------------------

Our heroes made their way toward the abandoned fertilizer company. That seemed like the most likely location of the evil Manos fictive headquarters. The assault team took point, followed by the extraction team. The small army of Crows brought up the rear.

Joel eventually decided to take Mulder’s phone. Joel knew he was much more technologically capable than Mulder. Plus, he really needed someone to watch over the Crow army and he didn’t want to end up with the job himself. Mulder protested, citing how it wasn’t fair, how it was his phone, and how he first determined the culprit was a Manos fictive. Unfortunately for Mulder, pretty much everyone else thought it was probably best that Joel handle the tracking device. A phoneless Mulder dejectedly walked back to the Crows, muttering about baby-sitting.

“Oh cheer up, F.B.I. guy,” an annoyed Crow demanded, “Your on the team with the most lasers and best sensors.”

Mulder turned to reply and was surprised by what he saw. The Crows had stopped and had their heads turned to the right.

“Someone’s watching us,” the lead Crow explained to the confused human.

“What should we do?” one of the more timid Crows asked.

“Let’s tell the others and sick Sabretooth on whoever it is,” Mulder said.

The lead Crow thought that would take too long and wouldn’t involve them. “GET HIM!” the high Crow shouted.

The entire army of Crows, completely ignoring Mulder’s protests, ran after the figure that only their powerful sensor nets could detect. They ran with a robotic speed the Mulder couldn’t hope to beat or even keep up with. Mulder went back to the front to explain what happened.

“You were supposed to watch over them,” Mike complained.

“I did. I watched them ignore me and give chase to some thing they detected,” Mulder retorted, “Exactly how did you intend for me to control them?”

Mike didn’t have a response. He looked toward the direction Mulder said they had gone. Mike didn’t want to split his forces as they were about to reach enemy territory, but he couldn’t let the Crows run loose. There were definitely Torgos on the loose and the Crows could get hurt or captured. Either way, it would give the Manos fictives knowledge of the imminent attack, which would make a lousy situation worse. Fortunately, before Mike could ask for volunteers to find the Crows, the army returned only a few minutes after they had left.

Apparently, the Crows had taken a prisoner. They were herding their find toward the extraction team.

“Mike, look!” the lead Crow demanded excitedly, “We thought it was a Torgo, but instead, we caught Mickey!”

Sure enough, amid the swarming Crows was the mentally challenged character from the old black and white movie, ‘Screaming Skull." The terrified character was shaking badly and babbling incoherently. Mike took pity on the pathetic loser and tried to calm him down.

“It’s okay Mickey. It’s just a mistake. Crow, let him go,” Mike ordered.

“It’s no mistake. He was spying on us,” Crow responded.

“He spies on everybody. He harmless and a good guy, too. Don’t you remember the movie?” Mike asked.

“Ugh. Don’t remind us,” Crow said. The Crows backed off Mickey and moved back into formation.

“Sorry, Mickey,” Mike apologized, “We were looking for the Torgos and their Master.”

“They have lots of women. They have one that screams. I hear her scream,” Mickey said as he began to walk away.

Thinking quickly, Sabretooth grabbed Mickey by the shoulders and spun him around. They needed recon and this little shrimp wasn’t going anywhere until he spilled his guts.

“Tell us what you know and how you know!” the mutant roared.

Mickey quivered and stuttered at first, but he did manage to give the required information.

“I…I…I was looking f…f…for fertilizer f…f…for the garden,” Mickey began, “ Th…th…there wasn’t any at the fertilizer plant. It's all gone now. The main floor was filled with women. Th…th…they were sleeping, I think. I looked in the basement. Th…th…there was man. He was sleeping, too. He had funny robes on. Two men with really b…b…big knees started chasing me and told me to stay away from the master and his wives. I ran away. Th…th…that’s when I heard the scream. There was a woman screaming from the top floor. Please let me go. I have to tend the garden.”

“Where’s Joel?” Crow demanded.

“I didn’t see anyone other than the girls, the master, and the big-kneed men, I swear,” Mickey pleaded.

“That’s enough, Sabretooth. Let him go,” Joel said, feeling bad for the shaking black and white fictive.

Even though he gave Joel an I-don’t-take-orders-look, Sabretooth released the quivering gardener. Mickey promptly ran back to wherever his garden was kept.

“Good,” Doggit said, “Now we have recon.”

“Okay we have a plan,” Mike said, “Assault team runs to the basement to deal with the Master. Extraction team will get the kidnapped victims out.”

“Mike, what should we do?” the lead Crow asked, “We deserve an important job. We captured Mickey and got you some reconnaissance.”

“Hmm…you guys go the top floor and find Servo and Alexis. Then find Joel. We still don’t know where he is,” Mike noted uneasily.

They resumed their journey to the abandoned fertilizer company.

Amanda

----------------------------------------

The smell in itself was nearly overwhelming, but Mike and Joel did what they could to ignore it. Their first battle ever with ShadowKnight had led them to the Capitol, or rather beneath it, to back up the X-Men, who were fighting demons and Necromancers. Honestly, that had smelled worse.

Mike hefted his two-handed broadsword, though he would always be uneasy about using it. Joel still had the tracker, but on his back was the hand-carved bow and a quiver full of arrows... a gift from Logan nearly a year ago now.

They made light of their situation, as they often tended to do. Both men were not fools in the special ops business, but at heart they were as light as men could be. Nothing had killed their good humor, and it wasn't likely anything ever could.

"I've got a lov-e-ly bag of fertilizer, de de d-le de de, there it is a'standin' on it's own..." Mike grinned impishly, parodying an almost already parody-ish song.

Joel snickered, looking down at the tracker. "Big logs, small logs, some the size of your head..."

"Oh, I would never be allowed to do this if Kitty were here," Mike commented, teasing still, in his best Zazu imitation voice.

Joel might have answered, but before he even walked two more paces, he held up a hand. Mike stopped short, and signaled to the rest of his team to halt as well. Silently as he could, he slipped back to Sabretooth and whispered, "Can you tell how many people we're coming up on?"

Vic eyed the darkened corridor ahead, his acute vision picking up a door at the end that most of the others couldn't likely see. Lifting his head, he sniffed in that direction, and his brow furrowed.. damn, but that fertilizer was a pain to try and smell around. Another moment of silence passed as he gathered the sensory information and processed it, and he finally answered, "Scents are hard ta pick out, prolly 'cause we have duplicates or somethin', not ta mention the stench. I c'n hear about twenty or so, though, movin' around, maybe more. Door at the end, steel, doesn't look like it'd hold up it we hit it hard enough. Nothin' between us an' the door."

Mike nodded, tossing a glance over the team. He made his way to the center, addressing them as a group. "This is it, folks. Sabretooth, Wolverine, it's your job to take out the door. Joel and I will follow right behind. Nan-Cy, I need you and Larry to try to get the women out of any line of fire we might have."

"Mostly, we *have* to take the Master out," Joel added. He had the most experience with Manos, and he knew what to expect. "Take him out by any means necessary, then the Torgos."

Doggit grinned, racking a round. Sabe and Wolverine exchanged a glance that spoke of pure, animal, 'let's-kill-something" glee. Joel smiled slightly, taking down his bow. He was as sure shot as there ever could be with it, a born natural, and for a moment he pictured himself in green tights as Robin Hood with his Merry Men.

Needless to say, that idea was very quickly discarded.

Mike gave them all a grin. "On three, team. One... two...."

"Three!!!" The entire team roared in unison. Victor and Logan barreled for the door like a pair of freight trains, and Mike and Joel weren't more than two paces behind. The first two went through the door, the lock snapping, and the entire assault team went into the room like pros.

And stopped.

Mike exchanged a glance with Joel and swallowed hard. There was not one, but four Masters, all with a troop of Torgos. Behind them, they could see another steel door and a dimly lit room, filled with white-garbed women.

Creed ended up speaking for all of them. "Well, sh*t, ain't this just peachy."

SLWatson

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"Shall we wrestle?"

Alexis looked up from her sitting position on the floor. A frail, somewhat weedy looking woman in a dress like Alexis's was standing at the door, smiling vacantly.

"No, we shall NOT wrestle. I don't do that sort of thing," she growled. Tom Servo let out a disappointed whimper from his position in the corner of the room, for which Alexis glared at him.

The woman frowned. "But. . . the master wants us to wrestle," she said after a time.

"Well good for him. Tell him for ten bucks he can get the same thing and a basket of buffalo wings to boot down at Kali's in Coastal City," she retorted.

The woman looked confused. "The master wants us to wrestle," she said again.

"I think you should listen to the Master," said Tom Servo.

"Oh, shut up." Alexis stood up. "Listen, you, maybe this will help it sink into that small brain of yours." She grabbed the woman's head on both sides as one would a disobedient child and stared at her eye-to-eye. "I. . . DON'T. . . WRESTLE." She let go and turned away.

The woman suddenly grabbed onto Alexis. "I'm afraid I must insist."

It is a general rule that, for any given superhero or heroine (even former ones), it is a particularly foolish maneuver to make any sort of hostile and unexpected movement. The training involved creates a sort of instant reaction which is designed solely for the purpose of such incidents. This form of training is based entirely around the concept that the best offense is a good defense.

It was with this that about ten seconds later, Alexis had the woman down on the ground in an armlock, holding her head up by the hair.

"Don't you DARE try that again," she growled, before dropping the woman's head roughly on the ground and knocking her out.

Tom stared in disbelief. "Er. . ."

"I don't wrassle, I just fight dirty. Come on, we've got a route outta here."

***

The two snuck down the hallways as quietly as possible. Alexis's nose was wrinkled up at the rather unpleasant odor that seemed to be wafting its way down the corridor.

"What the hell IS that shit?" she asked herself.

"Exactly," replied Tom.

Alexis stared at him in confusion. "Huh?"

"It's shit. About 35% cow, 40% goose and, er. . ." He took another whiff. "Huh. 25% chocobo. Who'da thunk?"

"Wow. How'd you do that?" she asked in awe.

"Call it a gift, babe. Or maybe CURSE is more appropriate. Ulp. . ." If Tom had been human, he'd've been green around the gills.

Alexis suddenly held up a hand. "Shh!" Pulling Tom Servo along, she ducked into a nearby Convenient Alcove (tm) and pressed against the wall.

A couple of men in long robes passed by silently. Alexis didn't recognize any of them. "Hmm. . . some sort of guard, perhaps?"

Tom, however, DID recognize them, and his beak opened and shut in disbelief. "Whu. . . buh. . . guh. . ."

"Something wrong? Spit it out, man!" she said.

"Masters! Lotsa masters! But only one! Or suppose to be! Duuuh. . ." Tom began to sputter and emit smoke.

Alexis gulped. "Oh boy." She recognized this classic MiSTing cliche immediately -- Tom Servo couldn't take this much conflicting data.

His head was going to explode.

Panicked, Alexis said the first thing that came to mind. "WAFFLES!"

Tom stopped sputtering and looked around. "Oooh! Where?"

Alexis sighed in relief. "Wow. I can't believe that worked."

"Well, Joel always made pretty air-tight programs," said Tom proudly.

"So, you were saying?" she prompted.

Tom shook his head and gulped. "Those guys that passed -- they were the Master. Or rather, MasTERS. But that doesn't make any sense, since there's only supposed to be one of them!"

Alexis frowned. "Not necessarily. If it's a Writer we're dealing with, then the Master would be just as much a fictive as Torgo himself. Therefore he could make copies of them."

"But what's the point?"

The ex-superheroine shrugged. "A Master will always be more powerful than a Torgo, but he might not be as powerful as several Torgos. So maybe whoever's behind all this needed Masters as a sort of Lieutenant for the troops," she hypothesized.

"But if the Writer isn't playing the Master. . . who IS the Writer?"

As the two stopped to ponder this, they were startled by the sound of a struggle taking place around the corner.

"What IS that?" wondered Alexis.

The two ran to the end of the corridor and turned. A large group of Torgo fictives were being flung around like they were practically nothing at all. As the crowd of Torgos began to thin, a couple of rather familiar faces began to come through.

Alexis relaxed and smirked. "Got you too, huh?"

Kitty Pryde knocked one last Torgo away and smirked back. "Yeah, guess you could say that."

Bodger

----------------------------------------

It was planned that the extraction and back-up teams would wait a short while after the assault team went. This was in case if there was anything blocking their paths, it could be removed. While all the teams were armed to a certain extent, the back up and extraction teams were relying on stealth unless emergency dictated otherwise.

"It's been long enough," Mulder grumbled. He was still suffering from the loss of the cell phone. Without it, he was nothing but a baby-sitter to the Crows. "Let's head out."

The team members went over to the front door of the fertilizer plant. The assault had found it open and used it to get in. Unfortunately, time had changed that.

"The door's locked now," College Buddy announced. He tugged on the handle again to prove it to the other team members.

"Allow me," Gambit said, charging up a playing card and taking aim at the metal door.

Adriana stopped him. "No. We can't risk being noticed. Blowing up the front door will attach us some unwanted attention. We'll have to find some other way to get in."

---
Thirty minutes later…

Gambit pulled on the rope leading to a second floor window, judging the amount of weight it could hold. The extraction team had rigged it as their alternative means of breaking into the plant. With no other options, they decided to go up.

"Dis will hold 'bout two fictives. Maybe more," he reported.

Adrie nodded. "Great. Who want's to go first?" she asked the team.

Married Man and College Buddy volunteered to be first to go. They scaled the rope with no problem.

Scully went next. She struggled a bit since she was still wearing heels, but, in the end, the rope was no major challenge.

The next team member to go was Commander Rick. He started up the rope, but had problems early on. Half way up his feet slipped, leaving him slightly stranded.

"I thought everyone learnt rope climbing in school," College Buddy teased from above.

"I was in English Literature Studies during the period Gym was offered," Rick explained. Finally finding another foothold, he scooted up the rest of the rope.

The other members of the extraction team made it up with no problem. Married Man gave an 'all clear' to the back-up team. "Alright," the lead Crow called out to the troops. "You've all seen 'Uncle Jim's Diary Farm'; you know how it's done. Let's go."

As the Crow army started up the rope, it suddenly snapped in two, sending a number of golden bots crashing down onto Mulder. Confused by what happened, Married Man reached for the half that remained attached to the window. "That's odd," he commented after inspecting it.

Rick moved in so he could get a clearer view of the rope. "One would think the break would show signs of stress from the weight, but there isn't any. It's a clean cut," he explained. "That doesn't make sense."

"Writer's powers," Adriana stated upon seeing the break. The rest of the extraction team fell silent. If a Writer was responsible for what had just happened, that meant he, she, or it knew of their presence. Any hopes for a stealth approach were blown out of the water.

"Well, we's just have to be more careful den," Gambit summarized, heading down a dark, fowl smelling hallway. Most of the team followed close behind. Scully lingered at the window a second longer.

"Don't worry Mulder. We'll send someone down to let you in," she called. Scully turned her attention briefly to the Crows. "Just look after them in the meantime," she added, before joining the rest of the team.

Mulder lent against a nearby tree. "Oh, I will," he said sarcastically after the fellow agent left the window. "Of course I will."

Back in the hallway, Scully caught up with the extraction team. She tapped Rick on the shoulder, startling him. "Mr. Smith, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Fire away," Rick replied, not partially paying attention. The stench made it to concentrate on anything.

"We need someone to let Mulder and the rest of the back-up team in," Scully explained. "I've chosen you for the job."

The Commander stopped dead in his tracks. Scully continued with the team, leaving Rick alone in the middle of the hallway. "I think this should play with my feelings of self worth," he said to himself. "But, for some reason, it's not."

No one responded to his comment, so Commander Rick went off in search of the front door.

Teddog

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