Title: Rocky and Bullwinkle in the Labyrinth
Fandom: Labyrinth
Rating: PG
Parts: 6
DISCLAIMER: I don't own labyrinth, don't own Rocky and Bullwinkle -
they are owned by Jay Ward, a genius. Special thanks go to Ponsonby
Britt
Summary: crossover between rocky and bullwinkle the cartoon and labyrinth
because I was that bored.
Episode one...
Jareth sighed as he twirled a crystal between his fingers. He was
bored, an occurence which seemed to happen quite often. He needed
something to do...a new minion to kick, a new girl to seduce, a new
baby to kidnap, something, anything! Sighing, he leaned back in his
throne and closed his eyes briefly, wondering if anyone would ever call
upon him again. It had been far too long...
His eyes shot open as a familiar feeling coursed through him and his
lips curled up in a smile. Someone was about to say the words...
*******************************************
Well, Jareth wasn't the only one that was bored that day, as looking
in on our heroes in Frostbite, Minnesota, proves. It was a Thursday, a
day in Frostbite where traditionally, no one does anything at all, and
everyone gets sick of doing it. Looking in on our boys that were in
their small shack on the edge of town proved that they were, indeed,
keeping up with tradition.
Rocket J. Squirrel, known to Rocky by his friends and viewers, did his
best not to scream as he looked up at his best friend, Bullwinkle J.
Moose, who was doing much better with doing nothing. Of course, it
helps when you don't have too much intelligence to give you ideas of
things to do.
"That's it!!" he shouted finally in disgust.
"What? What happened?" Bullwinlke asked, coming out of his
self-induced trance.
"I can't take it any more!!"
"So give it away," the moose replied helpfully.
"No, I mean I can't sit here and do nothing for the rest of the day!!"
"But Rock! It's tradition! Besides, there are only eight more hours
left until sundown!"
"Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, I don't care! I'll go crazy if I don't find
something to do!!"
"Gee, Rock, I thought you were already nutty...hehehe, get it, nut,
squirrel?" Rocky rolled his eyes before heading out the door with his
best friend at his heels.
"So, Rock, what're ya gonna do? Everything's closed here on
Thursdays!"
"I'm going to the library!" That's right, the Frostbite Falls library
traditionally stayed open every day of the week, all hours of the day,
for no reason at all. Deciding to take advantage of this strange quirk,
the heroes headed to the building and walked inside, careful not to
disturb the librarian that was sitting there doing nothing as quietly
as she could.
"What are we lookin' for, Rock?" Bullwinkle asked, glancing around at
the shelves that were mostly-full of books.
"I dunno...just something to read, I guess."
"But Rocky, they don't have comic books here!!"
"Bullwinkle, why don't you try reading something besides those comics!
They're all a bunch of junk, anyway."
"But Rock, if you can't believe what you read in the comics, what can
you believe!!" Bullwinkle protested. Rocky sighed and picked up a book
that seemed to be laying neglected on a table.
"The Labyrinth..." he read, frowning.
"What's that?" Bullwinkle asked.
"A labyrinth? It's sort of like a maze-"
"Why would you want to read about corn?"
"Not corn, maze!!! You know, the kind you walk through!!"
"You mean like in a field?" Exasperated, Rocky tossed the book at
Bullwinkle and went to go find something to occupy his plucky squirrel
brain.
Later, after our boys had checked out their selections, they headed
for home, Rocky with a few issues of Flying Squirrel Weekly, and
Bullwinkle with the odd red book that had been thrown at him.
"Hey, Rock, this isn't bad..."
"That's good...what's it about?"
"This girl wishes away her brother to some goblin king...then has to
get him back by solving this lab-...lab..."
"Labyrinth," Rocky supplied.
"Right...still don't know what corn has to do with it, though,"
Bullwinkle sighed and Rocky had to restrain a groan of frustration.
"Maze, Bullwinkle! Maze!!"
Oh, if only our heroes knew who was listening in at the moment, they
would've chosen their words more carefully! For right behind a corner,
snooping intently was-
"Hey, buddy! Over here!!" What was that?
"Over here! You have the wrong corner!!" Who're you?
"Allow me to intraduce myself. Boris Badenov, villain extroidanaire.."
"And Natasha Fatale, dahlink."
That's right! Around the corner listening into our heroes'
conversation was Pottsylvania's slightly better than average spies,
Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale! Oh what would there devious plans
involve this time?
"Simple. Fearless Leader sent us here to get food for Pottsylvania.
Ve've been having a bad case of famine lately..." Yes, it appeared that
no food was growing in Pottsylvania-
"I deedn't say that! The food that ve have is enough to make anyvone
vant to change ceetazinship, sometheeng that happens too much, anyway!
So ve're supposed to feegure out new ways to grow better food!"
"But Boris, Dahlink, vat does that have to do vith Moose and
Squirrel?" Natasha asked, frowning in confusion.
"Seemple. They have book that talks about maize. Maize means corn,
corn means food! So, vat do we do now?"
"Eat corn?"
"No!! Ve steal book!!" Oh, but those two were evil!! Not only would
they steal Bullwinkle's book, but they wouldn't return it on time and
force him to pay all the overdue fees, too!
So Rocky and Bullwinkle walked along, having no idea what was about to
develop. "Hey Bullwinkle...I'm getting the feeling that we're being
followed!!" Rocky said suddenly.
"Really? I just feel hungry..."
"Oh, Bullwinkle! You're always hungry!!"
"Oh. Then I guess I don't have to be worried about that feeling, do
I?" Both our heroes stopped suddenly as an odd sight met their eyes.
"Hokey smokes! What's that?"
"Gee, Rock, it's an odd sight! Don't you listen to the nararator?"
Rocky rolled his eyes and looked back to the small boy in school
clothes and mustache that was blocking their path. "Hello there boys!
Allow me to be introducin' myself! I'm a poor school boy that deedn't
get to the library on time to get a book to do a book report on for
school!"
"Aw, that's too bad," Rocky said.
"Yeah, makes it hard to right a report if you don't have anything to
write it on."
"Could you help me out at all?" the innocent-looking boy asked. Oh if
our heroes only knew!!
"Hey, shaddup you! I'm trying to run a scam here!! Now then, do yous
have any books that I could write my reeport on? I'll give you two
suckers for it!"
"Wowee! Well, I just got this from the library," Bullwinkle said,
holding out his find.
"That'll do! Thanks boys!!" the disguised Boris said and snatched the
book before running down the street.
"Hey, where are the two suckers!?" Bullwinkle asked, turning to an
equally confused Rocky. Both shrugged and continued down the street.
"Gee, it's good to help," Bullwinkle sighed.
"Yeah...but that voice, where have I heard that voice!!" Rocky
muttered. "Hokey smokes Bullwinkle, I just thought of something!! The
library's always open...he just wanted your book! He stole it!!"
"Oh no! Now what!?"
"We've got to get it back! Come on!!" Rocky cried as he began to run
down the street.
Meanwhile, in an alley, Boris and Natasha stood chortling evilly.
"MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Vee bested Moose and Squirrel again!!" Boris
laughed, putting his hat into place on his bald head.
"Yes, dahlink...but vat ees dees?"
"Vat do you meen?"
"Dees book...there's nothing about corn! Eet's a cheeldren's story!!"
"Oh boy...Fearless Leader is not going to be happy..."
"Looks like Moose and Squirrel won after all, dahlink," Natasha
sighed.
"At least they have to pay overdue fees," Boris pointed out,
shrugging.
Rocky and Bullwinkle ran down the street, looking in alleys, garbage
cans, even empty pop bottles, but there was no sign of the book
anywhere.
"This is ridiculous! We're never going to find it!!" Bullwinkle
moaned.
"Don't worry Bullwinkle, we can't give up yet!"
"It's just not fair! I was just getting to the good part, too! Right
when the girl wished away her brother!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
"Hey Rock! Maybe that's how we can get the book back! Maybe if we wish
away the kid that took it..."
"Bullwinkle, that's just a story! Probably an old wives tale or
something."
"Told by real old wives? Rock, it'll work! Watch!"
"Bullwinkle, give it up!!" Rocky sighed as he continued searching.
"I wish that the goblins would come and take away whoever took my book
right now!!" Both heroes were suddenly startled as two very surprised,
accented screams were heard down the street.
"Golly! Someone's in trouble!! Let's go!!" Rocky shouted, running
towards the screams.
What will our heroes find? What has become of Boris and Natasha? What
about Pottsylvania's impending doom? And what about the corn? Tune in
next time to find out in...Amaizing grace or The Corn and I....
************************************************************
"Hey Rocky!!" Bullwinkle exclaims, standing over a very-impressive top
hat. "Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!"
"But that trick never works!!"
"This time for sure!!" And with a wave he plunges his arm in and pulls
out...
"Uh, either I'm not even close or this is one ugly rabbit!" he mutters
in disgust as the goblin cackles at him.
Rocky shrugs and says, "And now here's something we hope you'll really
like!"
***************************************************************
The castle beyond the goblin city appears in all its glory and you
start to wonder if you're watching the right show.
"And now, with a bird's eye view and a brain to match, is Mr.
Know-it-All!!" Rocky announces, and Bullwinkle appears in the window.
"Hey, Bullwinkle, what're ya doin up there?"
"Today I'm going to demonstrate the proper child-taking techniques
that a goblin king would use, of course!!"
"Bullwinkle, that's horrible!!" Suddenly a small gnome-like creature
runs into the room.
"Know I ain't! I'm Hoggle!!"
"Not you, stealing children!!"
"Hey, Rock, don't knock it till you've tried it! Now then, the process
of stealing children is a very long and involved one that can be kind
of complicated, um...Let's see..." Bullwinkle muses as he gets out of
the window and plops into the throne, mimicking a bored expression that
one would expect to find on a certain king...
"Wait a minute! Ya don't have the proper clothes!!" Hoggle protests.
"WARDROBE!!"
"Okay...that's better, I think..." Bullwinkle says, glancing down at
the grey tights, billowy blouse, pendant, and blond wig he's wearing.
"Does anyone ever think that if this guy got some help he might not
steal kids?" he asks before shrugging. "Anyway, to steal a child, one
must...um...well..." A goblin peeks out from behind the throne and
whispers in the moose's ear.
"Right! To steal a child, one must wait until someone says the right
words..."
"Gosh Bullwinkle, what are they?"
"I wish the goblins would come and take me away, right now - hey!!!"
he shouts as five goblins appear, heft him up, and promptly throw him
out a window...
"Now, you might think that this is a bad thing, but now I turn into an
owl and float gracefully to the house where I have to steal the
child-OOF!!!" Unfortunately, he doesn't transform fast enough and hits
the ground with a loud thud.
"The next thing you have to do in order to steal a child is to get the
person that wished him away to take a gift in return..." Bullwinkle
goes on, looking slightly ragged around the edges. "I've brought Boris
here to help me demonstrate...Forget about the baby."
"Vat baby?"
"The baby you wished away!!"
"I deedn't weesh a baby away!!"
"Boris, just pretend!! Besides, I brought you a gift..."
"Vat?"
"Here...now is when you give the wisher a ball..." Bullwinkle
explains, pulling out a tennis ball and handing it to Boris. "Wait a
minute...that doesn't look right..."
"It's supposed to be a crystal ball!!" Rocky whispers from the
sidelines.
"Oh, okay...just a minute..." Bullwinkle runs out of the room and
returns with a gypsy and her crystal ball. "Here ya go...sorry, but she
wouldn't give it up so you'll just have to take the gypsy, too."
"Vat? I don't vant that!!"
"That's what's supposed to happen!! I give you the ball, you give me
the child!!"
"But I don't vant some creestal ball!!"
"Fine, then what do you want?"
"Heeheehee...I thought you'd never ask!" Boris laughs before smashing
a pie in Bullwinkle's face.
"Um...that doesn't sound right, but okay...now give me the baby."
"Okay!" Boris says before leaving the room and unleashing the baby
gorilla that he's been taking care of. "Here ya go!" The gorilla
immediately jumps onto Bullwinkle, who is still in Jareth-garb, and
clings for dear life...
"Wait a minute!! This isn't supposed to happen!!" Bullwinkle protests,
trying to figure out what, exactly, he did wrong.
"Well, uh, that's all the time we have for today! Thank you, Mr. Know
it all!!" Rocky says, shaking his head and grinning as he waves to the
audience.
Episode Two...
If you'll remember last time our heroes, after going to the library in
an effort to find something to do, had an odd library book stolen from
them by that fiend, that villain, that-
"Please, flattery weel get you nowhere!" That no-goodnik Boris
Badenov. Desperate to find it, Rocky and Bullwinkle searched high and
low, right and left, uphill and down, in and out...
"Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about! That's what it's all
about!!" Uh, right...anyway, Rocky had just given up hope, when in
frustration Bullwinkle said the words he had read in that strange book
that somehow wasn't about corn. Soon after our heroes heard frantic
screams coming from an alleyway so they follwed as quickly as they
could, only to find...
"Gee, would ya look at that," Bullwinkle muttered, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, he sure is an odd-looking fella," Rocky agreed, trying to
figure out just who the man in front of them was. He was tall, had long
blond hair, and wasn't dressed like any Frostbite Falls citizen he had
ever seen before. In fact, with those clothes, he was lucky he didn't
get arrested.
"Um, excuse me, Sir, but we're looking for the boy that stole my
book-"
"He's there, in my castle..." Jareth sighed, although he had to admit
that this was more interesting than his usual kidnapping missions.
"What? You mean those words worked?!" Rocky asked in disbelief. The
goblin king just smiled.
"Just forget about the Boris," he said, producing a crystal. "I've
brought you a gift."
"What is it?" Bullwinkle asked, frowning.
"A crystal...but if you turn it this way, it will show you your
dreams."
"Uh, no thanks...I'd much rather have boxtops," Bullwinkle replied,
trying to figure out who the stranger was.
"Who did you say you were again?" Rocky asked, suspicious.
"I am Jareth, the goblin king."
"You mean like in the book?"
"The same. Do you want this crystal?"
Rocky looked at Bullwinkle who turned his head to see what Rocky was
looking at. "Um, sorry Your Highness, but we didn't mean to wish that
boy away-"
"You didn't. You wished away your nemeses, Boris and Natasha."
"Oh, well that's all right then," Bullwinkle sighed, glad everything
had worked out.
"No it isn't!! Bullwinkle, we can't just let them stay there! What if
he turns them into goblins!" Yes, goblins, a fate even worse than
Pottsylvanians, but not so bad as being Moosylvanian. "If it's all the
same to you Mr. Goblin King Sir, we'd like them back. It isn't that
it's awfully nice of ya to try and help us out, but we need them back!"
"Yeah, the ratings might drop lower than they actually are!"
Bullwinkle added, gaining only a glare from his plucky squirrel friend.
"All right," Jareth sighed, and our two heroes suddenly gasped as the
landscape began to change.
"Uh-oh, Rock...looks like the network didn't renew the show...where
are we, Siberia? Pakistania? South Dakota?"
"This is my labyrinth...you have thirteen hours to solve it before
your friends become one of us forever...such a pity..." Jareth chortled
before disappearing.
"Gosh," Rocky breathed at the king's magic. "I must say, I'm
impressed."
"Well then go ahead," Bullwinkle suggested.
"What? Okay, I'm impressed."
"And I'm Bullwinkle," the moose chuckled in appreciation of his own
joke.
"Well, I guess we'd better get started...come on feet," Rocky sighed,
leading his friend down to the gates of the labyrinth.
"I wonder how we should get in?" Bullwinkle mused, staring at the
gigantic gates.
"Yous gets in by asking the right question," a gravelly voice informed
them and both of our heroes turned to stare at a funny-looking man who
was spraying pesticides on the fairies all along the gates. "And before
you say somethin' I ain't horrible, I'm Hoggle!!"
"Gosh, why would we say something like that?"
"Well, uh, most say it cause I spray the fairies..."
"But if you don't, wouldn't they eat everything in sight?" Bullwinkle
asked.
"Well yeah...hows come it don't bother you?"
"It's like the nursery rhyme...Mary had a little lamb with fleas as
white as snow..every where that lamb did walk the fleas were sure to
go...This is kinda like that," he said, changing the second part of the
rhyme to fit the situation "...So if your gates have teething elfs then
take a tip from me, don't bother with the usual stuff, just use some
DDT!!" Bullwinkle exclaimed and Hoggle nodded.
"Glad somebody understands! But I still ain't helping you-hey!!! How'd
you open the gates!!" he shouted at Rocky who was just starting to
enter the labyrinth.
"Huh? Oh, while you were talking I just asked the right question...I
asked the gates to please open, and they did!!" he explained before
heading into the forboding maze.
"Wonder why I never thought of that," Hoggle mused before watching
them disappear in the mists.
********************************************************
Meanwhile, in the castle Boris and Natasha were trying to figure out
their situation.
"That stupid moose!! He said the vords that vere in the book!!" Boris
shouted, flinging the book at the wall as he skimmed through the pages.
"Don't worry, dahlink, Moose and Squirrel will rescue us."
"Worry? Who boy! Don't you remember vat arteecle seex of the villain's
handbook says? There's nobody as stupid as the hero of a TV cartoon
show!" Boris replied glumly.
"Vell maybe ve can escape..." Natasha suggested and that got Boris to
thinking.
"Maybe ve can do that and get some food from here too...that way
Fearless Leader doesn't give us vacation!"
"Boris, vat's wrong vith a vacation?"
"Everything when eet's een Siberia!" Boris replied and immediately
started thinking of ways to get out. A sudden commotion from the other
side of the empty throne drew his attention.
"Natasha!!" he exlaimed, peeking over the arm rest. "You aren't going
to believe vat's in thees room!!"
"Peabody and Sherman?"
"Seelly girl!! They're goblins!!" Sure enough, filling the room were
bunches of nasty-looking, stupid goblins. Boris laughed as one of them
threw a chicken across the room.
"HAHAHAHA!!! Eet's just like being back in bad ol' Pottsylvania!!!"
"They're as ugly as Fearless Leader!!" Natasha laughed.
"And as schtupid!"
"Vat Vas that Badenov?" a sharp voice demanded suddenly.
"Uh, F-Fearless leader?"
"Boris, you left your wrist radio on, deedn't you?" Natasha demanded,
pointing at his two-way wrist radio that was on his two-way wrist.
"But I could swear-"
"Not in thees story, dahlink," she reminded him and he turned his
attention to his radio where Fearless leader was yelling at him.
"Oh, Fearless Leader, Buddy, Pal, Vee vere just talking about you!!"
Boris started.
"Can the mushy stuff Badenov!! Do you have food for Pottsylvania?"
"Um...ve're working on eet..."
"You'd better have it soon or else you'll be put against a wall!"
"That doesn't sound so bad," Natasha whispered.
"In front of a firing squad!!" Boris gulped as the message faded. He
was a future goblin if he stayed here, would be shot if he went
back...he needed to think of a plan, and fast!!
"Ve'll just escape and steal food from thees place!" Boris proclaimed
suddenly.
"Oh Boris! I'm so proud of you!" Natasha gushed by his side.
"Yeah, yeah, now help me out of dees vindow!!" he commanded, pointing
to a window on the other side of the throne room. Without hesitation
they crossed to it and looked down.
"Boris, are you sure? Eet's a long vay down..."
"But ve have to get out of here! Those goblins remind me too much of
firing squad Pottsylvanians!!" Boris's keen ears perked up as he
noticed footsteps coming down the hallway towards the throne room.
"Queek! Out the veendow!!" he ordered, trying to get up to the sill.
What will happen to our heroes that are now stuck in the mysterious
labyrinth? Will Boris and Natasha somehow be able to rid the
Underground of its food supply and get it to Pottsylvania? And who do
the mysterious footsteps belong to? Tune in next time to find out in...
Maze of our lives or Feed the need.....
******************************************************************
"And now it's time for Bullwinkle's Corner," Rocky proclaims as the
curtain rises, revealing Bullwinkle holding a poetry book and standing
beside a goblin wearing a frilly dress, blond curly wig, and holding a
watering can.
"Today's poem is all about gardening..." he explains before reading
from his book to the goblin. "Mary, Mary quite contrary-"
"I tried ta tell ya my name's Barry!!! BARRY!!!!!" the goblin
protests, glaring at the moose.
"Uh...okay...must have been a typo...Starting over, then...Barry,
Barry, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?"
The goblin glares even more. "Why should I tell ya!?"
"Because that's what the poem is about!!!"
"Can't ya read? I'm Barry the contrary and I ain't telling ya
nothin!!!" he laughs.
"But the poem!!!"
"Who cares?!" Bullwinkle stares at the goblin for a moment, then
glances around before taking out a five dollar bill and handing it to
the goblin.
"All right, here...but don't tell anyone. Now then, how does your
garden grow?"
"Well...I don't like ta give away my secrets, but first I throw all
the rocks I can find in it...then yank out all the flowers and leave
the weeds...then drown them with water and then let em shrivel and die
in the sun!!!"
"Wait a minute...that's terrible!! Nothing will grow like that!!"
Bullwinkle realizes.
"Hey, you're the one who wanted to know!!" Barry laughs, waving the
money.
"Why you...give me that!!" Bullwinkle yells, reaching for the money
only to be bonked upside the head with Barry's watering can. A fist
fight ensues as the two make their way off stage, throwing punches at
each other.
"Uh...thank you, Bullwinkle! Be sure to tune in next time!!" Rocky
shouts, peeking his head around the curtain and wincing as a loud crash
is heard.
episode three....
If you'll remember from last time, our heroes were just entering the
labyrinth when we left them.
"Gosh, Bullwinkle, it's kinda cramped in here," Rocky sighed, glancing
around.
"Cozy, ain't it!!!" Hoggle suddenly cried, laughing as the plucky
squirrel glared at him.
"Oh, I don't know...it might be better with some curtains...maybe a
picture or two," Bullwinkle mused.
"What? Oh...well, would you go left or right?" the dwarf asked and our
two heroes looked at each other, pondering the possibilities.
"What do you think, Bullwinkle?"
"I don't know, I'm still pondering the possibilities."
"Well, we can't take anything for granted! We only have thirteen
hours! Gosh, which way would you go, Hoggle?"
"Me? I wouldn't go either way."
"That's probably why he's still spraying for fairies outside there,"
Bullwinkle whispered to Rocky. "Let's go...left!!"
"Why?" Hoggle asked suspiciously.
"Because I feel like it, that's why!!" the moose replied, irritated.
"Yeah, who are you to criticize everything we do, anyway?" Rocky
asked, following his friend down the passage, leaving the dwarf behind.
"Probably someone from the network," Bullwinkle replied, shrugging as
they continued walking.
"Wait a minute!!! There's no turns or anything in this labyrinth!! Now
what?" Rocky finally asked, turning to see only miles and miles of wall
laid out in front of them.
"Um, cut to where Boris and Natasha are trying to escape?" Bullwinkle
suggested helpfully, but unfortunately it wasn't just the right time
yet. Sighing, the heroes sat against the wall, trying to think of a
solution.
"Allo!!"
"Rock, I know you're here, you don't have to remind me!!"
"That wasn't me Bullwinkle!! Hokey smokes, look!!" The squirrel leaned
down until he was nose to nose with a fuzzy blue worm.
"Did you say hello?"
"No I-"
"What about Hullo?" Bullwinkle asked.
"No-"
"Hola? Guten Tag? Bonjur?"
"No!!! I said allo!"
"Same thing," Bullwinkle said, shrugging.
"Pardon me, Mister worm, but could you tell us how to get through this
labyrinth?"
"Me? Naw, I'm just a worm!"
"I think we've already established that," Bullwinkle pointed out.
The worm was about to invite them in, but stopped himself, not knowing
if he'd really want to put up with that moose for longer than he had
to.
"How come there aren't any turns or nothing in this place!!"
Bullwinkle asked, getting up.
"Oh, it's full of those! You just gotta look for em, that's all!!" the
worm laughed.
"I think somebody's been living in a wall too long," Bullwinkle
muttered as he raised a hand to lean against the wall opposite the worm
and Rocky, yelping as he fell straight throuh a hole.
"Bullwinkle! You found an opening!!" Rocky shouted, following his
buddy into the hole.
"Wait! Not that way!! Never go that way!!" Rocky was about ready to
ask why, but Bullwinkle dragged him down the other path, the one that
the worm had deemed as safe.
"Bullwinkle!! That path might have lead towards the castle!!"
"But then the story would be over pretty quick, wouldn't it?" he
pointed out, and for once Rocky had to agree with the moose.
Our heroes walked along until they came to a section of stone maze.
"Gee...maybe we should mark our path to keep track of where we've
been," Rocky suggested.
"Isn't that why we have a narator?" Bullwinkle asked. Rocky just
rolled his eyes and pulled out two markers.
"Here, we'll use these," Rocky instructed, handing one to his pal.
Bullwinkle nodded and Rocky immediately started drawing arrows along
tiles as they walked along, completely oblivious to the little gnomes
that popped up from underneath the floor to turn the tiles around.
"Gee...I don't think this will work..." Rocky sighed, turning to look
at where they'd been. "Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!! Someone's been
changing our marks!! This isn't fair!!!"
"Not mine," Bullwinkle said, beaming with pride at the graffitti he'd
doodled on the walls of the maze. Yes, besides arrows, Bullwinkle had
drawn a complete mural of abstract flowers, swirls, and other things
that could be thought of as social commentary but were actually just
doodles, all along the length of the walls of where they had already
been.
"Hey, you can't do that!!" a voice said and both the moose and plucky
squirrel looked up at two doors that had suddenly appeared.
"Hokey smokes! Where did they come from?" Rocky asked as the two made
their way over to inspect the odd guards positioned in front of them.
"Must be acrobats from some circus..." Bullwinkle mused, turning his
head upside down to regard the bottom two heads of the guards.
"So what do we do now?" Rocky asked.
"You've got to choose a door, but you can only ask one of us about it!
And one of us always lies, and one of us always tells the truth. That's
in the rules."
"How do we know if it's in the rules if one of you always lies?" Rocky
accused, giving them a hard look.
"Oh, come on, Rock! Look at em! They're obviously intelligent!!"
Bullwinkle said, standing on his head beside the guards.
"Oh, brother...okay, um, is this the right door?" the plucky squirrel
asked, using the straightforward approach as he turned to the door on
the left.
"Um...yes?" it answered.
"You aren't sure...it's the right door!" our boy Rocky deduced,
entering the doorway with Bullwinkle close behind.
"See, that wasn't so bad, Rock, it was almost a piece of-AUGH!!"
Suddenly our heroes had the ground yanked away from them as they began
to fall, only to be caught by a group of blue hands!
"Hokey smokes!! Who're you!"
"We're helping hands!" one group said, forming a face.
"Hey, that's not bad! Can you do an elephant?" Bullwinkle asked,
forming animals with his own hands. The hands were eager to try this
new art and immediately began experimenting, forming dogs and bunny
rabbits, dropping our heroes in the process. Down they fell, plummeting
faster and faster into the dark depths of a deep dirt ditch. Our heroes
blinked in the inky blackness, trying to adjust to the dark.
"Sure is dark in here," Rocky muttered.
"Yeah, I can't even see my hand in front of my face!" Bullwinkle
agreed.
"You don't have your hand in front of your face!!"
"Well I said I couldn't see it!" Bullwinkle retorted.
"Well, now what?" Rocky sighed, looking around.
************************************************************
"Now you'll be taken back to the beginning!!" Jareth chortled,
throwing the crystal over his shoulder as he made his way back into the
throne room. Things were going just as he wanted, well, except for the
fact that just as he entered the two villains that he had kidnapped
just jumped out the window.
"What!! No!! Blast it, go after them!!!" the infuriated king yelled at
his minions, drop kicking one across the room when it didn't obey fast
enough. Sighing, he collapsed in his throne to think up a way to
immediately solve this new problem.
Meanwhile...
"Natasha, I just found out vat happens ven a cartoon character jumps
out a vindow!"
"Vat, dollink?"
"It hurts!! Oy...come on, Natasha! Ve have looting to do!!" Boris
chortled as they headed towards the goblin city with intents of theft
and scams in their minds.
Oh, will the villains get away with this dastardly crime? Will Rocky
and Bullwinkle ever get out of the oubliette? Will Jareth suffer a
nervous breakdown before this is all over? Tune in next time for Pitch
in the Ditch or A Lark in the Dark!
****************************************************************
As the theme music starts up, you settle down to watch one of the more
intriguing parts of the show...yes, you guessed it! It's time for
Wiseman and son!!!
Slowly the wiseman plods across the clearing in the hedge maze and
sinks into his chair, sighing as he relaxes. The hat is whistling
gaily, then suddenly exclaims, "Here he comes!!" as a smaller, exact
duplicate of the wiseman, complete with blond mustache and beard comes
bounding into view and sits at his father's feet.
"Oh, hello, Junior...how...how is your day going?"
"Oh, okay I guess, Pop. But it just doesn't seem fair!!!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, how come the king gets to have a castle and all these girls
after him and stuff and all we have are these bird hats!!!" At that
moment, the hat on the boy's head pops its eyes open and glares down at
its wearer.
"I resent that!!" it chirps in a high voice.
"Well, son...I can answer that...you...want...to know...why we
don't...have fine things?"
"Huh. How's dat for a reason?" the wiseman's hat asks, rolling its
eyes.
"Will you be quiet?"
"Okay, okay!! Just start the story!!"
"Very well..." You watch as the scene plays out on your television as
the wiseman narates. "I will tell you the story of the tortoise and the
hair..."
"Once upon a time...there was a tortoise...and he was very bald like
tortoises are supposed to be...."
"Wait a minute!! That's not how the story goes!!" the hat interrupts
and the wiseman glares at it.
"Will you be quiet!!!?"
"All right!!"
"Okay?"
"Okay!!"
"Are you finished?"
"Yes."
"Very well...he was bald and the thing he wanted most was long,
beautiful hair. One day he happened to be walking along when he tripped
on an old tin can..."
"Help me help me!!!" a tiny voice inside it cried. Alarmed, the
tortoise looked around.
"Who's there?" he asked.
"Me!"
"Wait a minute...I thought I was me!"
"Hey! I'm stuck in this can here! You gonna get me out or not!" Being
the nice guy that he was, the tortoise immediately ripped off the lid
with his teeth and a tiny purple little man ran out.
"Hey, thanks buddy!! I was really sick of staying in there!"
"Who are you?"
"I'm a fairy!"
"Wait a minute...is that allowed? I thought this was supposed to be a
family-rated show!"
"Not that kind!!! I'm an elf! Ya know! I grant wishes...say, I tell ya
what I'm gonna do...cause you were so nice to me, I'm gonna give ya a
wish...anything that your heart desires...but wish wisely!"
The tortoise immediately asked for what he had always wanted.
"I want long wavy hair that is as golden as the sun!!!"
"Uh, you sure?"
"Yes, now give me my wish!!"
"Okay, if you say so..." The little man took out his wand, pointed it
at the tortoise, and...
BAM!!!!
Suddenly the tortoise had the most beautiful wavy, golden hair that
anyone had ever seen. Grinning at his reflection in the lake, the
turtle walked along, or tried to, but had a lot of trouble because he
kept tripping on his long tresses.
"Drat, pshaw, and other salty expressions!" he muttered as he tripped.
Looking up, he saw that a bunch of animals were heading towards him
ecstatically. "They must have come to admire my hair," he said. That
was true, but because of the style and length of the hair, all of these
animals also assumed that the tortoise was a girl and all were carrying
flowers and reciting really bad love poems at the top of their lungs.
Horrified, the tortoise began to run as fast as he could, but could
barely get away because he kept tripping over his hair.
Finally, he hid behind a building, breathing a sigh of relief as the
herd ran right by him.
"There! Now I'm safe!! I shall go into this building and hide!" he
proclaimed, sauntering right into the shop. Oh, if only he had wished
to learn how to read, instead, because that building happened to be a
wigmakers shop and as soon as the owner saw the tortoise she took him
as a pet and every time his hair started to grow she would shave it off
to make her wigs."
"Gee, Pop, that's pretty bad! What's the moral?" Wiseman Jr. asks, but
the only reply he gets is a snore.
"I theenk that's your luck...but I theenk he was going to say that the
moral was that you would often be sorry if your wishes were granted."
"That's probably true, but I can think of a better moral!!" Wiseman
Jr. proclaims.
"What's that?" the older hat asks, knowing what's coming.
"Hair today, gone tomorrow!!" the boy's hat proclaims and the boy
glares.
"I was gonna say that!!"
"Too bad!"
The older hat rolls his eyes and sighs. "Oy...this job is for the
birds!"
Episode Four....
If you'll remember last time our two heroes happened
to stumble into a troublesome predicament-
"Yeah, and it's hard to get out of, too."
Um, trying to solve the goblin king's labyrinth,
Rocky and Bullwinkle happened to fall into one of the
many oubliettes in the maze.
"Gosh, Bullwinkle, there doesn't seem to be any way
out of here."
"Of course not!! This is an oubliette, the
labyrinth's full of em!!"
"Gee, Rock, I didn't know I could throw my voice like
that!"
"That wasn't you, Bullwinkle! Hokey Smokes, there's
someone in here with us!! Who's there?"
"Me!!" And in a sudden flick of a match our boys were
able to see the stocky form of Hoggle the dwarf
standing before them.
"Oh, you. Anyway, Rock-"
"Hey, wait a minute! I can help yous out!"
"Oh yeah? So far you haven't been any help at all!"
Rocky shot back, his keen squirrel eyes narrowing
slightly.
"But I knows a shortcut, out of the whole labyrinth!"
"What? And give up! Never!!" Bullwinkle declared.
"Oh, wait...hey, Rock, who is it we're trying to save
again?"
"Boris and Natasha!"
"Oh. Okay, Hoggle, where's that shortcut?" Bullwinkle
asked, standing up and turning to the dwarf.
"Bullwinkle!!! We can't let them be turned into
goblins! We've got to do it for morality! For
Frostbite Falls!!! For America!"
"Yeah, and I guess the show would be pretty boring
without them, too..." Bullwinkle sighed.
"Right...Now then, Mr. Hoggle, how about if you take
us as far as you can go and then we'll do the rest
ourselves?"
"I don't know..."
"What if we gave you something in a trade?" Rocky
suggested. "What have you got Bullwinkle? I've only
got fifty-three cents and a skate key!"
"Well...I've got a rock."
"What good's a rock?"
"Well, it has the word Hope written on it-"
"BULLWINKLE!! That's the hope diamond! Where did you
get that?"
"From a previous episode of course!!"
"Oh, brother...okay Hoggle, how about the hope
diamond, fifty-three cents, and a skate key for your
help?"
"Oh...I guess so..." Hoggle sighed, wondering what in
the world a hope diamond was as he took the offered
goods. "Now then...here we are!" he proclaimed,
picking up a board and pressing it against a wall. "A
door!"
"Rock, I think someone's been cooped up in a hole too
long..." Bullwinkle remarked, glancing sideways at his
friend, but was quickly silenced as the dwarf flung
open the board, revealing a tunnel.
"Gee, it's a tunnel!" Rocky observed observantly.
"Right this way," Hoggle told them and the duo
followed their guide into the caverns that waited
beyond the door.
"GO NO FURTHER!!!" a deep voice proclaimed and both
our boys jumped at the sight of the talking, gigantic
stone head.
"Wow...what's that?" Bullwinkle asked, entranced.
"Just false alarms...they're here to fool ya into
thinking you're goin the wrong way!" Hoggle explained.
"OH NO WE'RE NOT!!"
"Gosh...I don't know who to believe!" Rocky said
under his breath, glancing around at the faces.
"Hey, Rock! Do you suppose they're related to our
narator?" Bullwinkle asked, still examining one face
closely.
"WHAT'RE YOU LOOKIN' AT BUB!?"
"Oh, sorry! Just taking a look at the locals!"
Bullwinkle explained.
"WELL GO AWAY FOR THE PATH YOU TAKE WILL LEAD TO
CERTAIN DESTRUC-HEY!!!!" the head bellowed as
Bullwinkle began to carve his name into the cheek of
the stone face with the skate key Hoggle had decided
he didn't need.
"Bullwinkle!" Rocky chided to his friend that was
defacing the face.
"Aw, come on, Rock! I can't help it-wha!?" Bullwinkle
defended himself right before a crystal ball rolled
down the corridor and knocked him off his feet. The
two startled heroes and the terrified dwarf turned and
gulped at the sudden appearance of a beggar.
"Well, what do we have here?"
"Uh, The name's Bullwinkle J. Moose and this is my
pal Rocky!" Bullwinkle supplied helpfully. "Could you
use some help there, my friendly neighborhood
vagabond?" he added, going over to shake the
new-comer's hand.
"No!! I think you have enough help!" Jareth said
coldly, whisking off his disguise.
"Hokey Smokes, Bullwinkle!!"
"Yeah, just think of the mess he could make out of
the clothing section of a department store,"
Bullwinkle replied, staring in disbelief at the king's
ability to change clothes so fast.
"And just what do you think you were doing, Heggle?"
"Hey, don't you pay attention? His name is Hoggle!!!
And he's helping us!!!" Rocky shot back, glaring up at
Jareth defiantly.
"Really...I must commend you then, Hedgewart," Jareth
replied, grinning smugly at the dwarf's expression.
"You're braver than I thought to risk the Bog-"
"NOT THE BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH!!!" Hoggle screamed,
throwing himself down at the king's feet. "I WAS
LEADING THEM BACK TO THE BEGINNING!!! PLEASE NOT THE BOG!!!"
"Oh, yes! And you Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle
J. Moose...how are you enjoying my labyrinth?" he
asked, turning to face our two heroes.
"Well...it would be better if you had something to
eat around here!" Bullwinkle suggested before
wondering why the king seemed to be fighting the urge
to kick something.
"It's not too hard, Your Highness!!"
"Not too hard...so you'd like it to be more
challenging then, hmmm?"
"I didn't say-"
"Then maybe we should up the stakes..." Jareth mused,
pointing to a clock that suddenly appeared on a nearby wall.
"Wowee! Wherever this place is, they have high-tech
effects!" Bullwinkle commented as the clock hands
began to shift forward a few hours.
"Hey, that's not fair!!!" Rocky protested, puting his
plucky squirrel fists on his hips.
"Yeah, this must be one of those adult cartoons,"
Bullwinkle added before Jareth could reply with his
patented retort. The goblin king regarded the two
heroes coldly before flashing a chilling smile and
conjuring a crystal.
"So this is like an adult cartoon, then? Then let's
see what kind of an ending this will have..." he
laughed, tossing the ball down the corridor and
vanishing from sight. Immediately, a loud rumbling was
heard coming closer.
"Hey, what's that?" Rocky asked, turning towards the
sound.
"Maybe it's an A-bomb," Bullwinkle suggested.
"Do you even know what an A-bomb is?" Rocky sighed.
"A bomb is what some people would call this story,"
Bullwinkle replied easily.
"I don't think that's very funny!!"
"Neither do they, apparently," Bullwinkle answered
before glancing over his friend's shoulder to see what
horror awaited them. Well whether it's funny or not
isn't the issue here! It all depends on whether they
can escape whatever terrible fate is coming towards
them down the dark cavern tunnel!! Tune in next time
for Wrath on the Path or Run from da Noise Run from da
Junk.
****************************************************************
"Greetings, Peabody here," the white dog with glasses
says casually. "And you remember my boy, Sherman," he
adds, gesturing to the red-haired boy to his side.
"Where are we going today, Mr. Peabody?" Sherman
asks.
"Well, if you'll notice the Wayback Machine is
already set...we're going to a very important part of
history today, Sherman. We're going to find out the
real truth about the Children's Crusades."
"You mean that war that made all of the children in
Europe suddenly disappear?"
"That's right. Good, boy, I see you've been doing
your studying. Supposedly it was caused by bandits
kidnapping children when they went to help the war
effort in the Middle East, but I have another
theory...Let's go, Sherman. We're headed to the
village of Hamlin," before we stepped into the amazing
time machine. In the blink of an eye we're in the
German town.
"Mr. Peabody!! What's with all these chickens? I
thought Hamlin was infested with rats!"
"Another mistake in the history books, Sherman. It is
a little-known fact that Hamlin was not infested with
rats, but chickens!!" Sure enough, hundreds of
chickens have taken over the town, running down the
street, eating food off of tables, and generally
making an enormous nuisance of themselves.
"We need this chicken infestation to stop!!" a
stocky, bearded bald man shouted from in front of the
town council building.
"Who's that Mr. Peabody?"
"The Mayor..." At that moment the mayor took his
toupee out of his pocket, but didn't realize that an
egg was hidden underneath it until he smacks it on his
head.
"We will pay anyone grandly who can get rid of these
pesky chickens!!!"
"I believe I have a solution..." a smooth voice
suddenly stated and everyone turned to regard a tall,
shadowy figure standing in an alleyway.
"Who's that, Mr. Peabody?" Sherman asked.
"I suspect that it would be the pied piper!" I said,
then hushed his boy so he can listen.
"Just let me take care of things...I have use for all
these chickens..." the accented voice continued.
"What use could there be for all this poultry?"
"Where I come from, chickens are the entertainment
for a certain breed of citizens," the stranger replied
lightly before striding over to the government
building. "Let's discuss my payment and then I'll see
what I can do..."
"Gosh, Mr. Peabody, was that really the Pied Piper?"
"I don't know...something doesn't seem right here,
Sherman. Maybe we should investigate..."
A few days later found the Piper not tuning up his
instrument, but gathering all the aritsans in the city
for a secret meeting. Sherman and I tried to get in on
the meeting, but were effectively shut out.
"What are we going to do now, Mr. Peabody?" Sherman
asked, sighing as he took a seat in the road outside
the building where the folks were gathered.
"I don't know, but we have to keep our eyes on that
stranger...he's up to something..." I told him,
raising myself on my toes to get a better look through
the window. At that moment the door is flung open
revealing the tall, cloaked figure of the Piper
holding an enormous basket of Easter eggs. With only a
mysterious smile he proceeded to distribute them to
the artisans who hide them throughout Hamlin. As if
possessing a radar system, all the children in Hamlin
suddenly ran into the streets with baskets and
buckets, all set to hunt the hundreds of dyed eggs.
Well, as you can imagine, as soon as the chickens saw
this they immediately started hitchhiking out of town,
because as everyone knows, Easter comes in the spring
and spring is the time when fried chicken starts to
become popular again for picnics. Almost immediately
the entire chicken population of Hamlin vanished.
Three days later, though, a new problem presented
itself.
"What are we going to do with all these dogone
kids?!" the mayor screamed, throwing his arms into the
air as children still scrambled to collect leftover
eggs which were now starting to rot.
"Ew, Mr. Peabody, what's going to happen now?"
Sherman asked, scrunching up his nose.
"I'm afraid we'll just have to watch and see,
Sherman. Something doesn't sit right here, though..."
I replied, trying to remember where I had read about
such occurances.
"I have the solution to your problem," the stranger
said, suddenly appearing beside the mayor.
"Anything! We'll do anything!!" Smiling at the
Mayor's desperate plea, the stranger leaned down and
whispered something into his ear.
"You mean that's all I have to do?"
"That's right...but realize that there's no
refunds...what's said will be said..." he added,
flashing that disturbing grin.
"Who cares?! It'll be worth it! Wait a minute...this
won't cause another infestation, will it?"
"Of course not..."
"Great! Then I wish the goblins would come and take
away all these annoying kids right now!!" the mayor
shouted, and suddenly in a puff of smoke, all the
yelling children, all the crying toddlers, all the
rowdy, fighting boys and the whimpering and happy
little girls are gone.
"Jimminy Crickets! Did you see that, Mr. Peabody!?"
"I definitely did, Sherman, and we've got to warn the
mayor exactly what he's dealing with!!" Unfortunatley
we didn't get enough time because at that moment the
Mayor took the stranger inside to discuss payment.
Following a hunch, we waited outside until the
stranger suddenly came rushing out, looking very
unhappy, indeed.
"So they think they can get away without paying me,
hmm? I'll teach them..." he mumbled under his breath.
Knowing that my suspicions were confirmed, I led
Sherman inside to talk to the Mayor.
"Mr. Mayor, you need to pay the stranger in full!"
"Are you serious? He's some vagabond in need of a
handout! We got what we wanted, what can he do to us?"
the mayor replied smugly, until he heard the music.
The most beautiful music a mortal could ever hear.
"What's going on, Mr. Peabody?" Sherman asks as we
hurry out to the street.
"It's just what I feared...that isn't any piper, or a
piper at all! It's the goblin king!!"
"What?"
"Just watch, Sherman!" I instructed, feeling a little
surprised myself as the streets of Hamlin were
transformed into the biggest ballroom I had ever seen.
Quietly the goblin king began to sing. He wasn't
disguised in a cloak and broad hat any longer, but was
in fine ballroom attire and his face was revealed so
that everyone in Hamlin might see him. Or, any
unmarried young female might see him. From out of
nowhere the young women came, running eagerly towards
the sound and promises of dreams coming true. The
mayor sputtered in disbelief and the adults tried to
warn them, but it was too late. In a flash, the king
conjured a crystal and in an explosion of light the
king and the girls were gone.
Back at home Sherman and I mused over the events.
"So the entire story of the Pied Piper was made up?"
"Actually, it turns out we weren't in Hamlin at
all...the Wayback Machine must need fixing...we were
actually in the town of Porklin! And the Pied Piper
and the Goblin King were only two of the known con
artists who took parts of towns away. They're actually
second cousins; they're whole family was in that
business. For the Goblin King it was a way to keep
business booming when people started to forget about
his labyrinth. Everyone has bad times and this was his
way with coping with them," I explained, sighing
slightly.
"But how did you know, Mr. Peabody?"
"Simple, Sherman. When I looked at what the children
were hiding, I discovered that they were painted
crystal balls and not eggs at all!"
"You mean he planted the chickens there on purpose?!"
"That's right...If you're more on the ball, then you
may discover that what looks to be perfect is actually
quite fowl!"
"Mister Peabody!!!"
Episode Five...
If you'll remember the last time we saw our heroes,
they were running from some unseen threat.
"IT'S THE CLEANERS!!!" Hoggle screamed, running in
absolute panic.
"Wow! Service that comes to you! Maybe they can help
me out with a stain on a sportcoat I've had..."
"NOT THAT KIND OF CLEANERS!! RUN!!!"
"Run Bullwinkle!!" Rocky agrees as he sees the
vehicle that looks like a dentist drill on steroids.
So our boys did the most heroic thing possible in the
given situation: they ran like the wind.
"Bullwinkle, we need to think of something fast! Use
your head!!" Rocky encouraged and Bullwinkle did just
that. He used his head! He used it to ram against the
nearest wall, causing it to crumble under his moose
strength, allowing our heroes to narrowly escape the
cleaners.
"Here's what we need! A ladder...this way..." Hoggle
said casually and Rocky stopped in suspicion.
"How do we know you're not taking us back?!"
"I wasn't! I was trying to throw the king off our
tracks!"
"See, I knew he had an honest face!!" Bullwinkle says
proudly.
"Uh-huh...but Hoggle, how can we trust you?"
"I really don't think we have much of a choice," the
moose replied before the dwarf could say the same
thing. Sighing, Rocky nodded in resignation and
followed first Hoggle then Bullwinkle up the ladder.
"Y'know, Hoggle, I think you have some issues,"
Bullwinkle suggested thoughtfully. "Like why do you
always run and scream as soon as that guy in the
tights shows up?"
"Cause he scares me! I'm a coward!!"
"Oh, makes sense!" Bullwinkle agrees, dropping the
subject.
"So what other stuff do we have to worry about?"
Rocky asked as they continued to climb higher and
higher. "What's this about the Bog of Eternal Stench?"
"It's TERRIBLE!! It's the worst thing you've ever
smelled-"
"I dunno, you haven't smelled my sock collection
yet!!" Bullwinkle said proudly.
"But if you set one foot in it you'll smell like it
forever!"
"That's Bullwinkle's sock collection to a T!" Rocky
added, shivering at the thought. Suddenly, they were
at the top of the ladder and climbed out into a large
section of hedges.
"Okay, I'm done!!" the brave dwarf announced.
"Says who!?" Rocky shouts, turning in surprise to see
the dwarf already running away. But maybe it was
because he already saw the wiseman coming and just
didn't want to deal with him.
"Hey Rocky! Let's ask this intelligent-looking fellow
for help!" Bullwinkle suggested, motioning for his pal
to join him.
"Oh, okay! Excuse me, Sir, but we're trying to get to
the castle!"
"You're...trying...to get...to the castle?"
"How's that for brain power?" the hat remarks.
"I think he's a genius!" Bullwinkle replied and the
hat rolled his eyes.
"Oh, brother," the hat and Rocky remarked at the same
time.
"You're...trying...to get to...the castle?"
"Yeah, large building, pointy towers, holds lots of
weird-looking goblins and a king that looks like his
hair got caught in a vaccuum cleaner," Bullwinkle said
helpfully.
"Well sometimes the way forwards...is also the way
back..."
"What?!" Rocky asked, an exasperated expression on
his face.
"Y'know Rock, that's an antihistamine piece of
information...i.e. it's not to be sneezed at!!"
Bullwinkle quipped as they waited for the wiseman to
divulge more information.
"I theenk that's your luck," the hat announced as the
wiseman drifted off to sleep. "Please, leave a
contribution in the leetle box."
"I've got it!" Bullwinkle says, depositing a few
boxtops in the slot of the box before our two heroes
walk away. "In order to get to the castle faster, we
have to walk backwards!"
"What?! But that makes no sense!!" Rocky protested,
rolling his eyes as Bullwinkle turned around and
proceeded to walk backwards, right into a bush.
"OUCH!!"
"I told you that wouldn't work! What's this?" Rocky
asked as Bullwinkle pulled himself out of the bushes,
hefting a chainsaw.
"This is what that wiseman was talking about, Rock!
In order to find this little beauty we had to find
this bush!" Well, for once the moose stumbles upon the
answer, literally! Without further adieu, Bullwinkle
proceeded to start the chainsaw and hack his way
through the hedge maze easily, scaring away a group of
guards that were torturing a large furry beast with
pointy sticks with annoying little animals with sharp
teeth on the ends.
"Hey, do you need us to help you down?" Rocky asked
as he unfastened the ropes binding the animal.
"Ludo...down!!!" the beast agreed right before he
plummeted into the floor of the labyrinth.
"Hokey Smokes! Didn't mean to hurt you there, Ludo."
"Ya don't happen to know the way through this maze,
do you?" Bullwinkle asked and Ludo shook his head.
"Well, I guess you're welcome to come with us...I'm
Rocky and this is Bullwinkle."
"Wocky and Buwinkle fwiends!!"
"Uh, right…hey, where did those two come from?"
Bullwinkle commented, crossing to where two doors and
their corresponding door knockers now stood where a
wall was three seconds ago.
"Who cares, let's just choose one and get going!"
Rocky sighed. "But I guess we want to choose the right
one..."
"Hey, I know!! Knock, knock!!" Bullwinkle cried,
turning to both doors.
"What?" asked the one with the ring through it's
ears.
"Mmmph," the one with the ring in it's mouth said.
"Let's go with this one...at least he's trying to
appreciate good humor!" Bullwinkle decided, knocking
on the door with the knocker with the ring in its
mouth. Shrugging, Ludo and Rocky followed.
"Ludo scawed," the beast muttered as they trekked
through a dark part of forest.
"Hey, it's okay Ludo, just keep going! Look at me:
I'm as cuke as a coolcumber!!" Bullwinkle boasted.
"Hmm...now let's see here, where to next...What do you
think, Rock?" he asked, turning to regard the empty
path behind him. "Uh, Rock? Rocket J.?! HEY ROCK,
WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!?"
**************************
Meanwhile...
"Boris, Dollink, do you theenk that there is any good
food here?" Natasha asked as the two dastardly
villains quickly crept throughout the streets of the
goblin city.
"Who knows, Natasha, but ve've got to hurry before
the kingy alerts hees guards!" Boris warned as they
snuck down an alley.
"But how, Boris?"
"Vat do you mean how, silly girl! Ve run a scam!!"
Boris proclaimed, tugging on a suave-looking sportcoat
and putting on a pair of glasses and pulling out a
microphone. Quickly, he handed Natasha a mike and got
to work.
"Velcome to channel thirteen news...I'm Cam Scam and
dees is my co-anchor Miss Demeanor. Thees just in...it
seems that all food in the Labyrinth is contaminated
by the babies that have been taken avay...symptoms
include becoming cute and adorable, speaking in
coherent sentences, and wearing pastel pajamas with
feet. All ceetizens have been advised to bring their
food to the town square immediately-" Boris paused as
suddenly bunches of goblins rushed out to where the
dastardly duo stood, deposited their food, and ran to
the safety of their houses. The two laughed evilly
before examining their supply.
"Uch...Boris, I don't theenk Fearless Leader would
even let any of thees stuff into Pottsylvania!"
Natasha observed, wrinkling her nose as she sniffed at
a cask of Owl Wine. Boris nodded his agreement as he
looked over some sort of fungi.
"Maybe ve'd better try someplace else...and queeck!!"
he added upon seeing the goblin corps heading from the
castle to where they stood. "Hurry Natasha, ve'd
better hide!!" the villain shouted before the two ran
down a deserted alley to find a hiding place.
What will happen? Will our heroes ever make it or
will Boris and Natasha be turned into goblins, forcing
the show to be cancelled? Will they find enough food
for Pottsylvania or will Fearless Leader give them an
all-expenses paid trip in front of a firing squad? And
where's Rocky?
Tune in next time for...Foody Blues or Where Have All
My Buddies Gone?
*********************************************
As you hear the thundering music and see the
sihouette of the brave soldier proudly riding across
the screen on his horse (backwards, of course) you
know it can only mean one thing (and no it isn't that
you have to change the channel!). It's time for
Dudley Do-right!
"Colonel Fenwick, you called for me, Sir?" that
loveable, dimwit Dudley called as he came into the
mounty headquarters.
"Yes, Dudley. We need new Mounties. Now go off and
don't come back until you've found some new recruits!"
the colonel said, confident that the next day Dudley
would have the problem solved.
The next day dawned, however and...
"Roll call! Dudley Do-Right!"
"Here, Sir!"
"Fenwick! Why, that's odd, we have the same last
name!" the colonel mused as he looked at the
clipboard.
"Father, it is me, Nell!"
"What? Do-Right, where did you get this mounty? He's
wearing make-up, too!"
"I gave her five cents to join, Sir!" Do-Right said
proudly.
"Well go back and find more suitable recruits!" the
colonel said before looking at the new recruit with a
hard stare. "You even look like my daughter!"
Meanwhile, in a shack in the woods...
"Eureka, finally a way to get rid of those
Mounties..." a dastardly voice that could only belong
to Snidely Whiplash chortled.
"What d'ya mean, boss?" his sidekick Thor the goblin
said, frowning.
"I mean that they need new recruits...ever since I
found you wandering in the woods with some of your
disgusting friends last month I've been trying to find
a good use for you..."
"I do make pretty good cappucino, boss!" the goblin
replied, trying to remember what cappucino was.
"We and your friends shall go sign up in disguise and
when we are in the camp, we shall take it over!!!"
Snidely chortled, then glared at the goblin who was
staring at him, confused. Sighing, Snidely bonked him
over then head. "Well, laugh!"
The next day...
"Roll call! Do-Right!"
"Here, Sir!"
"Fenwick!"
"Here, Father!"
"Lashwhip? That name sounds familiar..."
"Here you wonderful mounty boss you!" Snidley called,
proud of himself for coming up with such a clever
disguise name.
"Okay...Thor, Snerd, Ooglesnout, Slimeyfeet? Is this
some kind of joke?" Fenwick asked as he glared at the
five ugliest mounties he had ever seen. Four were
short, stocky, had big ears and noses, stringy hair,
and were becoming quite distracted with the rooster
perched on the fence of the mounty camp. The other was
just as ugly, but tall, with a mustache. They were all
wearing mounty uniforms except the tall guy had a top
hat on instead of the regulation Mounty Funny Hat.
"The joke is that we've got the camp now!!!" Whiplash
chortled as he ripped off his mounty costume. "It is
I, Snidely Whiplash, and I have you now Colonel,
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Snidely glanced down at his
dimwitted companions. "Well, LAUGH!!!"
"You know, if we're going to be treated this way, I'd
rather it be by someone with better fashion sense..."
Thor grumbled, glancing at the other goblins.
"Yeah, one who doesn't make us dress up in stupid
outfits!" Snerd added.
"One who lets us go chase chickens!" Ooglesnout and
Slimeyfoot added.
"Come on, let's go back to Jareth! At least he
appreciated us a little!" Thor grumbled and all of the
goblins suddenly disappeared.
"Snidely, you've been trying to fool us with
hallucinations, well it won't work! I've got you now!"
Dudley proclaims as he runs towards the villain, and
smacks right into the fence. Turned out that Snidely
was a painting on the wall, all along.
Back in the woods...
"Curses! At least I got away..." Snidely grumbled as
he ran for his shack. "Next time I plot an evil plan
I'm going back to using deliquents...."
Next Day...
"Roll Call! Do-Right!"
"Here Sir!"
"Fenwick!"
"Here Father!"
"Horse! What kind of name is that, Horse? Is that
Swedish?" Colonel Fenwick asked in confusion.
"Neigh!" 'Horse' replied, grinning at Dudley.
"Shhh, ol' pal...I won't tell him if you don't!"
Episode Six...
If you remember last time, Bulwinkle's buddies had
just disappeared, leaving him alone, but not for
long...
"HEY, WHERE YOU GOIN' WITH A HEEEEAAAAD LIKE
THAT!!!?"
"Uh, actually I was going to the castle..."
Bullwinkle tried, marvelling at the fireys' ability to
detach their limbs. "Wowee! I bet you could beat out
the bearded lady for a spot at the circus!" he
marvelled.
"Really?" the firey closest to him pondered, glancing
over at his friends. "You really think we're that
good?"
"Of course! You're fantastic! I bet you could even
get on a low-rated talk show!"
"Whoa, ya here that guys? Come on, let's blow this
joint! It's off to Hollywood!" the firey shouted and
suddenly all the fireys had donned movie star glasses,
had grabbed suitcases, and were booking it for the
next bus to LA.
"Hey, what about me!?" Bullwinkle yelled.
"Up here, grab it!" Hoggle yelled from the top of a
large wall. Shrugging, Bullwinkle grabbed the rope and
climbed to the top.
"Hey, I was wondering where you were! You haven't
seen my buddies, have you?"
"Um, no..." Hoggle managed, trying to keep his
balance along the narrow wall.
"Okay, thanks anyway for helping me out, kind
dwarf!!" Bullwinkle gushed before giving him a
Moose-strength slap on the back. Unfortunately, this
was enough to send Hoggle over the edge.
"AAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!"
"Hang on there, Mr. Hoggle, I'll help you out!"
Bullwinkle called, leaning forward to grab him.
Unfortunately he leaned just a little too far and
fell over the edge himself. The ground opened up
underneath them and they kept falling, right into
the...
"THE BOG OF STENCH!!!!" Hoggle shrieked as he landed
on a big hairy thing.
"OW!" Ludo yelled as Bullwinkle landed on his back,
too.
"Oh, sorry bout that Ludo! Hey, it's Ludo! Rocky!!!!"
Bullwinkle yelled in delight as he noticed his friend
who was apparently having some trouble breathing.
"I'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF THIS STENCH!!!!" Hoggle
screamed as he covered his nose and mouth.
"SMELL BAD!!!!" Ludo agreed and Rocky nodded
emphatically.
"What do ya mean? This place smells all right to me!"
Bullwinkle declared and the other three just gaped at
him, but not too much lest they breath in more than
they already were. Bullwinkle took a deep breath.
"Mmmmm....yup, just like my sock collection back
home!!"
"Oh, brother! Come on, guys, let's get out of here!
Look, a bridge!" Rocky noticed with those keen
squirrel eyes. Our heroes walked over to the bridge,
or rather Bullwinkle walked, the others ran for dear
life.
"Stop! No one may pass without my permission!" a
hyper fox yelled as he jumped in front of him.
"Well, can we have your permission, Mr. uh..."
"Didymus," the fox supplied the squirrel. "And of
course, my permission is thine. I was beginning to
wonder why more people didn't just ask...Fighing to
the death gets old after a while," he sighed as they
made their way across the bridge.
"Hey, I thought this had fallen down ages ago!"
Hoggle observed once they were on the other side.
"Haven't thou noticed the road construction during
the passing months? Our fair land has undergone a
clean-up program, starting with this fair bridge," the
fox yammered as our heroes continued on the path.
Meanwhile...
"Borees, look! Meellions of peaches!" Natasha
exclaimed as they looked into the enormous bin at the
end of the alley.
"I see, Natasha! Fearless Leader veell surely go for
theese!" he agreed as they inspected the produce. Oh,
if only they had known!
"Known what? Vhat you sayeeng?" Boris asked as he
turned to glare at the narator.
"Um, nothing!"
"Notheeng, notheeng, tra-la-la?"
"Hey, that's not your line!"
"Tough luck, eet's contageeous! Besides, all the
funny accents and lines in this theeng go to me! Now
why deed you interrupt?"
"Um, no reason, please continue!"
"Fine. MWAHAHAHAHAHAA! Natasha, theese are perfect!
Look good, too. And those gobleens haven't found us
yet! Vhat do you say to a leetle snack?"
"Vahnderful dollink!" Natasha replied as they both
grabbed large peaches and began to chow down.
"Hey, I'm starteeng to feel strange!"
"Me, too, dollink!"
Like I had said earlier, if only these two had known
that all peaches in the Underground are enchanted
peaches!"
"Dollink, I don't feel too good!" Natasha groaned
before sinking to the ground.
"And everytheeng's danceeng!" Boris agreed before
slumping, himself.
The next thing Boris knew, he was inside some sort of
ballroom. Blinking, he shook his head and tried to
sort everything out. He had been in the Goblin City,
had eaten those peaches....
"Blast that narator!" he muttered while looking
around for...someone. His jaw dropped as he saw a
beautiful woman in a purple ballgown and dark hair and
a smirk on her face. She looked so familiar...
"Natasha! Nathasha, ees that you?!"
"Borees! There you are! And vhy are you vearing a
dress?" Natasha asked, raising her eyebrows. Boris
looked down and screamed, for just as she had said,
was a beautiful, white, billowy ballgown, not unlike
the one a certain Sarah had once worn in a similar
situation.
"Thees is reediculous!" he snarled, plucking ribbons
from his hat. Just at that moment, a very confused and
well-dressed Jareth emerged, wondering who had
summoned him in a dream...
"THERE THEY ARE! THAT'S WHO ESCAPED AND TRIED TO
STEAL THE CITY'S FOOD! AFTER THEM!!!!" he roared and
suddenly every dancer in the place turned and glared
at them through their masks. The music stopped and
both villains gulped before turning and running like
heck. Soon, though, they came across a slight problem.
"Borees, ve're trapped in a creestal!!" Natasha
wailed as Boris banged on the side of the ball.
"Curses! Purity! Honesty! Compassion!!!"
"BOREES, WATCH YOUR MOUTH! There's a lady present!"
Natasha scolded, but Boris wasn't listening. He was
too busy ranting about how everything wasn't fair. In
the middle of his tantrum he picked up a chair and
hurled it at the wall. Suddenly, everything and
everyone in the room was falling....
******************************************
"Vhere are ve?" Boris moaned as they picked
themselves out of the garbage pile they had fallen
into that was strangely located in the middle of the
town. "I thought that there was a no burning law in
thees country!" Boris added upon looking at the
garbage ladies burning trash.
"And vhat are we doing here?" Natasha added, trying
to get up.
"GET OFF MY BACK! How many times do I have to tell
ya!?" the garbage lady yelled. "Now what do ya want?"
"Ve're lookeeng for sometheeng," Boris said, shaking
his head.
"Well, I've got what you're looking for right
here..." she cackled before pulling aside a tent
flap...
"Boris! Why haven't you got any food for Pottsylvania
yet!!!?" Fearless Leader roared from inside and the
two villains screamed before running the opposite way.
What will happen to our two villains? And what about
our heroes? And will Jareth actually survive this one?
Tune in next time for The Perve's Nerves or Jareth
Puts a Sock in It!
****************************************************
As the fairy glides across the screen, open the giant
book, and promptly gets trapped in it, you know it's
time for Fractured Fairy Tales!
Once upon a time there was a woman who wanted a child
very badly, so she went to the local Wisewoman to find
out what she could do.
"Well, my dear, if you don't know how to have a child
now...oh, you mean you've tried already! Okay...well,
all you need to do is take this seed home and plant it
and you'll have a beanstalk in no time!"
"But I want a child, not a beanstalk!"
"Right, sorry, wrong seed!" the wisewoman exclaimed,
digging in her boxes. "Here it is...go home and plant
it and water it and in the morning, presto!" The woman
paid the wisewoman and happily went home and planted
the seed and watered it. In the morning there was a
giant venus flytrap in the windowbox. The woman gaped
as it opened and out stepped a little normal-sized
girl. The woman was overjoyed and named her
Thumbalina. The two lived in peace for many years
until the girl was eighteen and it was decided that
she should get married.
So Thumbalina set off for the neighboring lands to
find a husband. She happend to be passing by the
Goblin King's labyrinth where he was gazing into his
crystal, bored as usual. As soon as he saw the fair
maiden he turned into an owl, flew down to her, and
begged her to marry him. She agreed, because she could
tell that he was a nice catch, so they were married
and went back to his castle to live together.
"By the way, darling, why were you named Thumbalina?
You are normal-sized," Jareth pointed out that night
as they were turning in.
"I don't know...my mother never told me," she sighed
before crossing to his side. He smiled and caressed
her cheek with a hand and went to trace her lips...
CHOMP!
"YEOW!!!" Jareth screamed and pulled his throbbing
thumb from between her teeth. You see, the wisewoman
had gotten that seed from faeries, and everyone knows
that faeries love to bite people. While she didn't
grow wings and was normal sized, Thumbalina still had
the habit of biting people's fingers, which is why her
mother named her Thumbalina. Luckily, Jareth was
understanding, and the two lived in happiness for many
years, even if it was a little painful around the
edges.
*********************************************************************
Episode Seven...
As you remember our heroes have faced cleaners,
goblin kings, and the Bog of Stench, and now they were
finally at the Goblin City!
"Hey, what about the guards?" Rocky asked as he
glanced at the sleeping guards.
"Don't worry, I shall fight anyone who tries to stop
us TO THE DEATH!!!!"
"Yeah, uh, Didymus, we'll save that for Plan B,"
Bullwinkle told the fox. "Excitable little guy, isn't
he?" he muttered to Rocky who nodded. Quietly, they
went through the gates and were just about to the city
when the doors slammed shut, and the eyes of the
giant, Humongus, opened.
"WHO GOES!!!!?" he bellowed and Ambrosious nearly ran
for it.
"We're Bullwinkle J. Moose, Rocket J. Squirrel, and
friends," Bullwinkle said, and frowned when the guy
made no move to let them in. "Okay, look! So far we've
fallen into a pit, been chased by a big metal thing,
went through hundreds of acres of this maze, and gone
through a bog that smells like my socks! Actually that
wasn't that bad..."
"BULLWINKLE!!!"
"Sorry, Rock! And on top of it, whoever's writing
this darn thing takes forever to get us out of these
situations!!! So before they lose inspiration or
something can you just please let us in!?" Bullwinkle
bellowed, his moose patience wearing thin.
"Oh, of course!" the monster replied, standing aside
as the doors opened. "I hate it when that happens!
I've been waiting forever for my cameo in this one!
Good luck!"
"See, ya just have to know how to handle these
things..." Bullwinkle muttered before two high-speed
objects slammed into our group of heroes. As they
tried to pick themselves up, they noticed that they
were two familiar high-speed objects.
"Boris! Natasha!!"
"Moose! Squirrel!"
"Hokey smokes!!!"
"Why are you wearing ballgowns?" Bullwinkle asked and
the two villains blushed and immediately tore them off
to reveal their usual spy clothes for plotting evil
deeds in.
"You've got to geet us out of heere!" Boris pleaded
and Rocky nodded.
"Right! Come on guys, let's get to this castle!"
"Vait! The guards! They're lookeeng for us!" Natasha
whispered anxiously.
"No problem! Hey Goblin Guards, they went that
way!!!" Bullwinkle yelled and immediately all the
goblin corps ran through the gates into the labyrinth.
Using his moose strength the moose pushed the gates
shut, locking them out.
"Well, that takes care of that! Now, who's coming to
the castle?" Bullwinkle chuckled, quite pleased with
himself.
Quickly our heroes and their companions raced up the
stairs and into the throne room.
"Whoa...spacious, though not what I'd call
exceedingly tasteful," Bullwinkle muttered, looking
around.
"Hey, there's only one way out of this room! Come on
Bullwinkle!" Rocky shouted and everyone started for
the door. "Wait! Guys, you've been a great help, but
we need to do this alone," Rocky sighed as he looked
Sir Didymus, Ambrosious, Hoggle, and Ludo.
"All right then...if that is what you must do," Sir
Didymus sighed.
"Ludo and Wocky and Buwinkwe fwiends!"
"But should you need us, all yous have to do is
call!" Hoggle reminded them and they nodded before
heading up the stairs, well, almost all of them.
"Boris, Natasha! Come on!" Rocky yelled down to the
two spies.
"Vat? I thought you vanted to go alone!" Boris said
and Hoggle rolled his eyes, glad that even he wasn't
that big of a coward.
"Come on you guys!" Bullwinkle sighed and Boris and
Natasha relunctantly joined our heroes. Quickly they
ran into the doorway at the top and all gasped upon
seeing what lay inside. Staircases jutted out of the
walls in every direction, at every angle.
"Ah, there you are...I was wondering what was keeping
you...and you've brought what is mine back to me, I
see," Jareth said from his position across the room.
He leaned casually against a wall, smirking.
"Pardon me, your highness, but we're getting them
back!" Rocky said, plucky squirrel that he was.
"Fine then...but can you get to them before this
does?" he asked, forming a crystal and hurtling it
towards Boris and Natasha. The villains yelled in
shock and tried to run, but the crystal followed them
wherever they went.
"After them, Rock!" Bullwinkle shouted and our boys
ran after the crystal and the villains. Try as they
might, though, they could never get to them. Instead,
they'd end up on the ceiling, or across the room.
"This isn't working!" Rocky yelled.
"What tipped you off?" Bullwinkle asked, coming to
his side.
"Hey, Bullwinkle! They're right across the room from
us...you don't suppose...?"
"Sure thing, Rock!" Bullwinkle said before picking up
the plucky squirrel.
"Alley..." Rocky supplied.
"Oof!" Bullwinkle finished as he hurtled our plucky
squirrel hero towards the crystal. The mammalian
missle sped through the room, rocketing towards the
crystal, Boris, and Natasha.
"Borees, duck!" Natasha yelled.
"No, squirrel!!" he replied as they fell to the
ground. Rocky gained speed as he got closer, and
suddenly the crystal wasn't there at all, but instead
he was falling, along with Bullwinkle.
"Wow, talk about your down-to-earth climaxes!"
Bullwinkle observed as they plummeted in slow motion.
Gently our heroes landed and found themselves
face-to-face with the Goblin King who was now decked
out in the confrontation feather attire.
"What do we do Bullwinkle? What's in the book?" Rocky
asked, his eyes widening at the king's smirk. Hokey
smokes, it's still with Boris!!!"
"Not any more...it fell out of his pocket when they
ran into us..." Bullwinkle said, pulling out the
volume.
"Wait, not that! You don't know how many times I've
suffered through that blasted speech!" Jareth objected
and Bullwinkle and Rocky glanced at each other.
"It does seem a little mean..." Rocky remarked.
"Yeah, but we're almost out of time, Rock!"
"Tell ya what...How about a trade? The book for the
no goodniks!" Rocky said, turning to face the goblin
king. Jareth stared at them for along time before
nodding.
"Very well...then at least one copy will be out of
reach of bratty teenagers!" he agreed, taking the red
leather book from Bullwinkle and waving his hand. In a
flash, everything was blinding light.
*****************************************
When the haze cleared our heroes found themselves
standing in front of the Frostbite Falls Library.
"Hokey smokes Bullwinkle! We're back in Frostbite
Falls!"
"Good thing, too. Thursday's almost over with, so now
we can stop being bored!"
"BULLWINKLE!!!"
"All right...hey, maybe when we get home we can call
on the gang and have a big party! I'm starting to miss
them!" the moose sniffled and Rocky nodded.
"Good idea...y'know, I wonder what happened to Boris
and Natasha..."
**********************************************
Meanwhile, In Siberia...
"Borees, that no-good Goblin Keeng sent us back to
Sibeeria!"
"I can see that Natasha! But at least eet could be
vorse!"
"How could eet be vorse!"
As if to answer the question, a terrifying form
emerged from behind a snowdrift.
"Badenov! I knew you were behind this! What am I
doing here and where is the food!?"
"FEARLESS LEADER!!!" both villains shouted in terror
before making a run for it, their leader right behind
them all the way. As they disappeared behind the
horizon line, the familiar figure of a white owl rose
from where it had been perched on a snowdrift,
chuckling in its throat all the way back to the
Underground.
The End