A Turn for the Worse

"It's incredibly annoying!" Josh howled, rolling around on the floor.

"Don't worry, Mike-Mommy!" Mikey said. The kitten leapt out of Mike's backpack. Hissing and rearing on his haunches, Mikey faced the winged beasts.

"Get back here, Mikey!" Mike yelled. "You'll get killed to death!"

Before Mike's unbelieving eyes, Mikey began to glow. Brighter and brighter, until blinding light filled the entire catacomb. The horrible sound of the creatures faded away. Mike knelt as if in a daze, relieved at the merciful silence. Then the light dissipated. Mikey lay flat on the ground. None of the winged beasts were anywhere to be seen.

"Mikey!" Mike yelled, racing over to him. "Are you OK?"

"Yea." Mikey coughed. "Is Josh?"

"I'm fine." came Josh's voice. "What did you do, Mikey?"

"I... I don't know. It's as if suddenly this terrible anger was burning inside me, and then..."

"Shh. It's okay." Mike said, patting the kitten. "You did good. Rest. Don't strain yourself."

Then quite abruptly, Rassilon was standing in front of them. Puffing on his pipe he shrieked "Can't a dead guy get some rest around here?! What are you damn whippersnappers doing?! And you - I thought I sent you away!"

"Wassup?" Mike grinned. "It's been a while, bone-daddy. I've got some info you might be interested in."

"Oh? Is that right?" Rassilon glared. "Do go on, then. I'm just... dying to find out what it is."

Lying on her stomach underneath a table, Susan had a great view of the battle between Minestus and Agent Strange. It appeared both of them had taken quite a beating. Agent Strange was missing his left arm, but was otherwise allright. Minestus seemed much worse off - his fanciful clothing was in tatters, his hair was on fire, and he lay on the ground, bone poking through his smashed legs.

"Damn you." Minestus coughed. "You had this planned all along, didn't you?"

Agent Strange grinned wearily and let his rocket launcher fall to the ground. "But of course. Did you really think I wanted you to rule the Multiverse? The very word - rule - is anathema to me. Your ideas of limiting the spread of thinies to consolidate your own power - what's the fun in that?"

"So... now you're going to set the machine to full blast and unleash total chaos upon the Multiverse instead." Minestus said grimly.

"Oh yes." Agent Strange said, grinning from ear to ear. "It will be marvelous! Too bad you won't live to see it."

"You're mad. The Champions will stop you."

"Will they? I suppose its not outside the realm of extreme possibility. In fact, they're welcome to try. It's just too bad your castle is such a nightmare of traps and labyrinths. That Doctor is quite the scrapper, though. I'll just have to wait and see."

"You'll regret this." Minestus said. "I'll be back, Strange!"

The Agent leapt forward, but Minestus had already vanished.

"Darn. He got away." Agent Strange said. "Come on out, Susan. No one's going to harm you now."

Susan climbed out from under the table. "Please don't do it, sir. Think of how many innocents would suffer!"

"I'm well aware of the repercussions." Agent Strange said. "I'll try to explain my philosophy to you as we watch the fireworks. You're actually quite lucky, Susan. This is the perfect place to see the birth of a new age. The Age of Absolute Chaos!"

With a wave of his good hand a small control panel materialized in front of the Agent. He turned one of the dials all the way to the right.

"Can you believe Minestus had the machine set to only five percent of its full capacity? At one hundred percent it should be a little more impressive, I think."

Susan shook her head. "No. No!"

1. Susan tries to stop Agent Strange by force.
2. Meanwhile, Fred and the others...
3. Meanwhile, Mike, Mikey, Josh and Rassilon...

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