The Silver Crystal

[muppetwriter]

Hey, everybody.

This is it. The Fantastic Four/Muppets/Dark Crystal/Farscape crossover that I've been promising for weeks is finally coming to the boards today. Right now, I'm working on a lengthy prologue that introduces the main plot of the story, featuring the out-worldly characters in the tale (including the infamous Silver Surfer). And for some that aren't familiar with the storylines to Farscape and Avatar: The Last Airbender, this prologue will help out a bunch.

It's coming sometime later today, so keep yourself glued (not literally, of course) to this thread.

 

[The Count]

Good... Anticipating the start of the story. Corpse, I'll also be watching the scecond Grim Adventures movie tonight, Wrath of the Spider Queen. And what with the Family Guy marathon afterwards, I'll be reading but it'll take me a while to reply as I'll read between commercials.

In other news, as soon as I finish my first ten haunters, I'll come talk about that mutual female friend of ours. Take care buddy.

 

[BeakerSqueedom]

Wow, I watch that too!
The Billy and Mandy movie was cool!
Oh and please type it up! That would be interesting!

 

[The Count]

Yep... Love that sho. This one was shorter than the first movie, but I liked the storyline and insight into Grim's past at the Junior High School for the Supernatural.

But back to MW's thread... Please post the first chapter!

 

[muppetwriter]

Ask and you shall receive. Here's the prologue to the story.

Prologue​

The triangular-shaped planet of Thra sat silently, waiting and rotating in an inky sea of black space. It was turning ever so slowly, even at a thousand miles per hour, revealing its skin of deep blues interrupted only by small patches of greens and browns. Thra was a planet of three suns; there were no dualities of night and day or the summer and winter of planet Earth. The most important element on the planet was “The Crystal of Truth,” originally a pure crystal before being cracked one thousand years by the same race of noble beings that erected it, the UrSkeks, who had—in result—split into two distinct races: the wise Mystics and the wicked Skeksis. It was housed in the magnificent Castle of the Crystal, Thra’s central landmark. Shortly after the split, one of the Skeksis split the great crystal during an argument, and it began to fade and darken. The passive Mystics fled from the crystal’s presence to a remote valley, while the Skeksis began to treat the split of the crystal as their greatest achievement. The crystal itself took on a dark purple hue, which signified its inner corruption, therefore causing it to be once known as “The Dark Crystal.”

For a millennia, Thra existed silently, orbiting near other, equally silent planets—their only companions the distant stars, small specks of silver and dust that cast an inconsistent glow, bathing the endless expanse of deep black with uneven light. Once every millennia, an event on Thra known as “The Great Conjunction” occurred, where its three suns lined up in the sky forming an intense beam of light. And due to its placement on the planet, the beam shined directly onto the Crystal. It was during the first Great Conjunction when it cracked. But an elf-like race known as Gelflings made a prophecy stating that one of them would heal the Crystal and restore order during the next Great Conjunction by reuniting a shard separated from the Crystal with it. Because of the Skeksis, the Gelflings became an extinct race, with the exception of two: Jen and Kira.

Mystics raised Jen before being sent by his dying master on a quest to find the shard of the Crystal and use it to heal it. On his journey, he discovered that he was not the last Gelfling as he once thought. Having obtained the shard and uncertain what to do with it, he wandered through a swamp and came across Fizzgig, the ball of fur that was the pet of Kira, a female Gelfling. With their help, Jen came to realize his destiny and was able to heal the Crystal, restoring balance to the planet of Thra just in time of the Great Conjunction.

After the Crystal and Thra itself were healed, the reunited UrSkeks left Thra for an unknown location. And just as they had departed, a new group of being had arrived: a crew from a living, intelligent ship known as a Leviathan and given the name of Moya. When they were young, if captured by a squad of mercenary soldiers called Peacekeepers, a Leviathan was bonded with a Pilot, who served as its navigator, operator, companion, and link to the ship’s crew. Moya was once a captive of the Peacekeepers who controlled her and other Leviathans through the use of giant control collars placed around the ships that prevented autonomous control and inflicted pain with disobedience.

During her time as a slave to the Peacekeepers, Moya was used as a prison ship, until two prisoners aboard her (a fierce warrior of Luxan heritage named Ka D’Argo and a short and frog-like exiled Hynerian known as Dominar Rygel XVI) took control of Moya and escaped from the Peacekeepers, while able to remove her control collar in the process. During the escape, two others were brought on board: an Earth-born physicist and astronaut named John Crichton, who was accidentally sent to the other part of the galaxy via a mysterious wormhole, and Aeryn Sun, a Sebacean (an alien race distantly related to humans) and a former Peacekeeper who became a renegade and joined Crichton and the rest of the Moya crew. Together, their journey brought them across more members, such as a scheming, independent-minded, gray-skinned Nebari named Chiana and an elderly, three-eyed Traskan herbalist named Noranti.

Before landing on Thra, the Moya crew arrived on a strange and bizarre planet that was home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. On the planet, human civilization was divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Within each nation, an order of men and women called “Benders” had the ability to manipulate their native element. The Bending types were Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending, and the arts of them combined a certain style of martial arts and elemental mysticism. In each generation, one person was capable of Bending all four elements: the Avatar, a spirit of the planet manifested in human form. When the Avatar died, he or she was reincarnated into an unborn baby native in the next of the four nations in the Avatar Cycle, which paralleled the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire, and autumn for air.

On the strange planet, the Moya crew came across a 12-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads’ Southern Air Temple named Aang, who was accompanied by two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe named Katara (an inexperienced Waterbender) and Sokka (a warrior and caretaker of the tribe, as well as the older brother of Katara), and a blind and somewhat selfish, sarcastic, bitter, arrogant 12-year-old Earthbender named Toph Bei Fong. They also had the pleasure of meeting Aang’s ten-ton, six-legged flying bison friend, Appa. Through the youths, the Moya crew learned a little about the history of the planet, as well as the dangers of it in the form of the ruthless Fire Nation, who had killed all of Aang’s people and left him to be the last Airbender.

Soon after their arrival, a half-Sebacean/half-Scarran Peacekeeper known as Scorpius came to the planet and encountered the cruel, self-centered 14-year-old princess of the Fire Nation, Azula, as she was scouting particular areas of the planet for her exiled brother (Prince Zuko) and uncle (Former General Iroh), in addition to the Avatar. She was assisted by her childhood friends, the cold, calm, and reserved Mai and the cheerful, somewhat ditsy Ty Lee. Seeing the sadism that Princess Azula had possessed (she fried ten of his Peacekeeper associates on their meeting with her remarkable way of produce lightning), Scorpius seized the opportunity of enlisting in a partnership with Azula and her friends to find Zuko, Iroh, and the Avatar, if she would assist in helping him find John Crichton and the Moya crew. It was Azula’s interest in Scorpius’ Peacekeeper technology that forced her to join him in the search, realizing a perfect opportunity to discover new worlds and galaxies that’d be hers for the taking in the process.

As soon as the wicked alliance found their targets, the Moya crew helped their new friends escape with great haste, flying away from the planet inside Moya. The Peacekeepers and the Fire Nation girls pursued with even greater haste in the Scorpius’ Command Carrier and were just about to capture their adversaries, until a wormhole appeared out of nowhere and swallowed up Moya and the Command Carrier. When Moya and her crew reached the other side, they found themselves near the planet of Thra, just as the Great Conjunction began. Landing their transport pod right in front of the entrance to the Castle of the Crystal, the expanded crew was greeted by Jen, a partially recovered Kira (who had been stabbed and killed by a Skeksis at one moment, but resurrected by the UrSkeks the next), and Fizzgig.

Upon seeing the unusually new race of beings before them, Fizzgig and the Gelflings were more than surprised—they were overwhelmed by disbelief, thinking that Gelflings and the simple, kindhearted Podlings were the only beings on Thra. After a brief introduction and explanation by Crichton, it was clear to the three inhabitants of Thra that they were truly not alone in the universe. Jen could remember what the horned, one-eyed, wild-haired Seer known as Aughra told him in her observatory about how everything in the heavens, from the moon to the stars. He was reminded of her orrery before it and the rest of her home were destroyed by a maleficent race known as Garthim (large clawed beetle- and crab-like warriors that were once living and of amazing strength), remembering the worlds that surrounded Thra’s Three Suns and believing that the visitors (Crichton and his crew) were possibly from one of those planets.

If Aughra were with Jen, Kira, and Fizzgig at that point in time, she would’ve given them a straight answer as to how Crichton and the Moya crew had come to their home world. But she was too busy keeping an eye on the Crystal of Truth to do so. And it was fortunate that she was, when something bizarre occurred from within the castle. Beams of light shined through the openings of the castle, hinting another possible transformation over the Crystal of Truth. Whatever that transformation was, it had a great effect over the entire planet, as cracks were forming all over the ground and the sky had quickly turned into a frightening shade of red. It must’ve also affected Aughra greatly, as she had been screaming in horror from inside the castle, alarming Jen and the others.

“Aughra!” Jen cried, and he was about to reenter the castle with his friends, until the entrance exploded along with the castle’s rooftop, while a silver sparkling object moved out from the castle at a remarkable speed, leaving a bright, radiant dust in its wake. They looked up at the object with great interest and left figuring out what it might’ve been, as it departed from Thra’s decaying atmosphere.

“What the frell was that?” Aeryn exclaimed.

Jen had no time to deduce and give Aeryn a straight answer, because he was too worried about the safety of both Aughra and the Crystal. He entered the ravaged castle, which was momentarily repaired once the Crystal had been healed, and as soon as he and his friends reached the Sacred Chamber, they were shocked to see the entire area of the castle in pieces with the Crystal of Truth missing from the room’s center. It was an even greater shock to Jen, Kira, and Fizzgig to see Aughra lying beneath several tons of debris. She was barely alive, with the upper half of her body sticking out from the enormous pile.

“Oh, no! Aughra!” Jen cried, as he rushed over to her side. “Hold on! I’ll pull you out!”

“No, Gelfling! No!” She screamed, but despite her plea, he had done so anyways, grabbing both of her arms and pulling her out from the rubble. To Jen, she seemed rather simple to haul out, especially since she was twice the size he was. But he had soon realized why that was the case, once he noticed how the lower half of her body was gone, leaving nothing more than a bloody hole beneath her upper half—the half that Jen and his friends were staring down at for the moment in total shock. “Gelfling…there are more mysteries in this universe…than you can know. They are greater…than the Crystal…itself.” She was wincing in pain between almost each and every word she uttered.

“What do you mean, Aughra?” Jen asked. “What happened here? What was that thing that had come into this castle?” He wasn’t sure why he was wasting his time asking questions about something that was far gone and left behind a massive wave of chaos, all because it had taken the Crystal. But he had to know in order to find whatever it was and retrieve the Crystal before it was too late.

“The herald of Gah Lak Tus has come…and he’s tearing out world apart as we speak.” Aughra weakly said. “There are wonders more dangerous than the former race of Skeksis, Jen. Gah Lak Tus and his herald being two of them.”

Katara stepped forward with Crichton right next to her, attempting to use her Waterbending skills to heal Aughra. But once the youth had gotten a good look at the incredible gaping wound that she had sustained, she suddenly realized that there was nothing that could be done, much to her displeasure. Aughra was dying; and though she accepted that to be the case, Jen refused to believe it.

“We can still save you, Aughra.” Jen said. “You’re going to be alright.”

“NO!” Aughra yelled, before letting out a fierce cough, fighting to breathe long enough to tell Jen what she felt was important to tell him. “You must reach the planet of the one sun. You must…reach…Earth!”

Crichton jumped in reaction to the word that was like magic to his ears. “Did…Did she say ‘Earth’? I thought I heard her say ‘Earth’! She said ‘Earth’!” Jen had no idea why Crichton would react so hysterically to a place that he had never heard of in his whole life.

Could it be possible that he comes from this so-called planet named “Earth”, Jen thought.

“What’s so dangerous that we have to get to Earth A.S.A.P.?” Crichton asked with much interest in the matter. Seeing the huge, vicious cracks that were forming on the floor of the chamber made him fear of the safety of his world. It might not have been important to his comrades (especially not Rygel—he would care less about what was dear to anyone), but it was important to him, because his father, his family, and his friends could all be in great danger from whatever it was that had attacked the particular planet he was on at the moment.

Aughra was struggling hard to breathe; she could barely utter more than three words in a second. “Gah Lak Tus…is powerful…he cannot be…stopped by mere…mortals.” She slowly reached up and grabbed Jen’s shoulder, pulling him close enough for him to hear her last words. “Gelfling…your new friends…they’ll help you…get there…there to Earth…you must…save us…alllllll….”

And with that being said, Aughra had died before the very eyes of Jen, who had realized afterwards that a new journey had lied ahead of him. Though it seemed that this new journey would be much greater than his last, he was willing to do whatever he could for Thra. But he wondered if it was too late. As he stepped out of the castle, leaving behind Aughra’s remains in the crumbling Castle of the Crystal, he and his friends witnessed a great apocalypse occurring over all of Thra—worse than any of what the era of the Skeksis had brought. All plant life had decayed in mere seconds, leaving behind nothing more than rocky territory that had crumbled until the core of the planet was showing and gallons of hot, boiling blue lava spewed out.

“Good God!” Crichton exclaimed; he was not certain whether to be marveled or horrified by the sight before them. “Let’s get the **** outta here!”

“Don’t have to tell that to us twice.” Sokka remarked, as they all boarded the transport pod and lifted it from the ground, just as it crumbled to pieces and had lava exploding from the hole left behind.

As they departed from the dying planet, Jen and Kira had gotten a perfect glance at what was happening all around Thra. Silver craters littered the landscape and could be seen scarring the planet’s surface, even from space, which they entered in less than a few seconds. The craters started to glow and hum, shaking violently, putting off their destructive power in short flashes of light. Just then, huge elongated streams of volcanic molten rock gushed up from the craters to a vortex of staggering size, made up of both energy and organic matter, dwarfing the Leviathan ship named Moya as it hovered near it.

“Oh, frell me!” Chiana shouted, as she stared at the vortex from the cockpit of the pod, along with the rest of the group. “What the frell is that?”

“Let’s not stick around to find out, shall we?” Rygel suggested.

They flew closer to Moya, getting an even better glimpse of the thing that was attacking Thra. The swirling vortex swallowed up the volcanic molten rock, their fiery plumes of heated energy giving it power and nourishment. The planet of Thra began to melt as it was consumed by the vortex, turning into nothing but stray matter and ash as it gave up its precious core to the swirling, voluminous, ravenous “Gah Lak Tus.”

Jen and Kira were in complete awe and shock of what they had just witnessed, as the transport pod flew into Moya’s docking bay area and landed. It only took one brief order by Crichton to have Pilot get Moya away from the vortex that was the all-powerful Gah Lak Tus, before it consumed them all. When they were far enough away from him, they were relieved momentarily, until something zoomed past the ship at great speed. A thundering shock wave of cosmic energy followed in the unidentifiable object’s wake, and it instantly connected with the ship, lurching it violently to the left and knocking almost everyone and everything inside off its feet (or in Rygel’s case, his “Throne Sled,” a hovering chair made specifically for Hynerian Dominars like Rygel).

“Is this frellin’ mess over or not?” Rygel bellowed, and while no one was bothering to listen to his rants, they kept their attention focused solely on what had occurred.

“Pilot! What was that?” Aeryn asked.

The voice of Pilot blared through every communicator device on the ship. “Moya is picking up an intense cosmic energy blazing just south of our location. It appears to have been some sort of silver orb.”

Jen’s attention, as well as his determination, was immediately sparked by the name of the color that the orb was. He remembered the color of the intruder that he watched bust through the roof of the castle and knew that the “orb” that zoomed past Moya was the intruder itself. Jen took one glance at Kira and Fizzgig and knew there and then that his quest had begun, and he also knew how crucial it was for him to succeed for worlds everywhere, so they would not suffer the same fate that Thra had.

“Crichton,” Jen uttered, and John focused on the small creature standing near him, seeing the look of determination on his face. “You must take us to this Earth, before whatever it was that killed our world does the same to yours.”

John looked into Jen’s eyes and realized how distraught the Gelfling was over what happened to his home. For someone who had spent many years away from his own home, Crichton knew exactly how he felt and knew how important it was for not only him but all life everywhere to avoid the wrath of Gah Lak Tus.

“Pilot…let’s follow that orb.”

THE SILVER CRYSTAL​

 

[The Count]

Wow... So much... Overload... Love it all... Must have more!

 

[Fragglemuppet]

Yes, sounds exciting so far! I am one of those people who was greatly helped by that prologue, as I am not familiar with Farscape or Airbender. So thank you!


And more please?

 

[muppetwriter]

Sorry it took a long time, but here's the official first chapter of "The Silver Crystal".

Chapter One​

Henderson had been a security guard for as long as he could remember, living just about the same length of time in London, England. Every night he would guard the front gate to one of the finest museums in town, harvesting the most treasured pieces in the world. It was a boring job to have in his opinion, but as long as the amount it paid was good, he didn’t care if he would’ve been bored to death of just standing in one place all evening and keeping a watch out for unusual characters of any sort until his shift was over. The only times when something truly interesting would happen during the evening were the ones when a delivery boy would come with a box of hot pizza that he didn’t even order and with toppings that he didn’t even like.

“I hate pepperoni!” He would exclaim to the delivery boy, who would care less whether he did or didn’t—he was just interested in the pay.

After his previous encounter with the delivery boy, Henderson vowed to check the pizza the next time he came. When he did, the British guard opened the pizza box and, much to his horror, saw layers over layers of pepperoni toppings. Shaking his head in disgust and asking himself why people ever bother eating such a disgusting type of pizza, he attempted to remove every bit of pepperoni from it, while leaving the delivery boy to stand there and hold the box open until he was done.

It was only until Henderson noticed a flash out of the corner of his eye when he stopped what he was doing. Both he and the delivery boy looked above them, high into the clear blue sky, seeing a silver blur moving above them and disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. As soon as it was gone, the ground beneath the feet of the two gentlemen near the front gate quaked while a loud, violent shockwave swept over the entire street corner. The concrete on the road and on the sidewalk cracked and crumbled. Henderson and the delivery boy collapsed under the heavy shaking.

When the earthquake had completely passed and the shockwave receded, Henderson and the delivery boy got to their feet; they got a good look at the devastation that was left after the unusual phenomenon. Not only was the entire road and sidewalk completely destroyed, vehicles had been turned over and leveled totally, and buildings (including the museum that Henderson had been guarding) were in ruins. While Henderson quickly went to the nearest phone booth to call 911, the delivery boy noticed the box of pizza lying on top of a pile of crumbled rock and picked it up, thinking that if the end of the world was coming that he would at least like to have one last meal before then. However, as he picked it up, he realized how cold it was and how much it was covered with frost and wondered how it could’ve ended up like that. What was even more puzzling was what had happened to the hot pizza inside, which had become nothing more than solid rock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Half a world away, a tiny European village sat nestled amid thick woods and trees. Isolated and silent, the village shared the same view as Earth: deep, inky night; silver specks of stars; a pale, lonely moon. The village was undisturbed—there was not even a wind to rustle the thick leaves on the trees in the dense forest. The dirt, untouched for years, lay heavily on the ground, as if sleeping deeply. Large stones marked a pathway up to an old mansion, its heavy façade as silent as the forest that surrounded it. The mansion was as old as the village itself, held over from a time long forgotten, when small groups of nomads roamed through the countryside, aided only by the light of burning torches.

Without the aid of torches, two small and harmless figures made their way down the pathway that led directly to the mansion: Dr. Philip van Neuter (former employee of Von Doom’s Department of Scientific Research—where he used to work with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker—but still a fan of Victor Von Doom) and his assistant, Mulch. Both men had spent years searching for Doom himself, chasing after a freighter ship that carried his frozen solid body but losing it while trekking across the Pacific Ocean. The journey was an exhausting one for Phil and Mulch; even the times Phil sang “Cooperation” was getting extremely irritating. When they reached Latveria two days ago, they didn’t hesitate to ask for the direction to Victor Von Doom’s house. As soon as they achieved their information, they tried to get to the location as quickly as possible.

“C’mon, Mulch!” Phil encouraged his exhausted assistant. “It’s just dead ahead!” He stopped for a minute and realized what he just said, feeling worse than he already was for saying it. “Argh! Why can’t I ever think about what I’m saying before I say it? I’m going to need a stretcher after this is all over! God Almighty!”

It was possibly only a few limps and pants away from the mansion, which housed dozens of large, dusty crates in its main room. The moon shone through a large bay window, giving just enough light to show the small rats and vermin lurking in the corners, hunger serving as their only companion. The only sign of modernity in the room was the now faded ink used to stamp the large wooden crates with the words “Von Doom Enterprises.” In the center of the room stood the largest crate (and the target that Phil and Mulch had been desperately searching for), a rectangle nearly seven feet high. Its nails long had ago lost their sheen, giving way to rust and dust.

Back outside the mansion, Phil and Mulch were only a few feet away from the front entrance of the mansion, as a small brightness appeared overhead among the dim stars. It grew stronger as it passed over the village. Phil and Mulch looked up above, noticing how the trees of the forest began to shudder and shake, and then they looked down below, feeling the dirt on the ground moving for the first time in years. Strong winds blew the carpet of the forest and the hairs on Phil and Mulch’s heads.

“What the hey-hey is goin’ on in this wilderness?” Phil asked, and Mulch just remarked with a simple, questioning grunt. Phil’s answer was soon answered unexpectedly as a solitary silver object passed through the sky, illuminating the tops of the thick trees for only a moment. “WHOA!” Phil’s voice echoed throughout the dense forest, but it was soon overwhelmed by loud bursts that had accompanied the silver object’s departure. A cloud of thick, radiant energy was left behind, gently falling to the ground. The glowing rain covered the entire village, bathing the forests, Phil, Mulch, and the mansion in its shining hue. The energy moved like water over the old stone walls of the mansion, while Phil and Mulch gazed at their own glowing bodies. “Good Lord, Mulch! Do you believe what just happened?”

Mulch, who was slightly freaked out over his glowing body, replied to Phil’s question with a nervous grunt. He tried desperately to wipe the glowing energy that the silver object gave off from his arms, clothes, and hands.

“That was so incredible!” Phil ecstatically shouted. “Remind me to tell Dr. Doom all about this when he find him in his mansion. We will be back on top again, my dear Mulch! And this time, nothing will stand in our way! Not even that bald freak, Bunsen Honeydew, and his verbally challenged assistant, Beaker!” Mulch let out a stream of angry grunts towards Phil. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry! It wasn’t like I was talking about you when I said, ‘verbally challenged’.”

Mulch rolled his eyes and shook his head, as he continued following his “master” up to the mansion’s entrance. Unbeknownst to the two, the iridescent wave of energy fell through the shoddy roof and into each room of the mansion, lighting the old structure. Rats scurried to the farthest corners of the large main room, running past the wooden crates, fearful of the incandescence moving over the space, their eyes glowing red. The curtain of energy spilled quickly over the largest crate in the room, covering it entirely. Wooden slats rattled and shook, the rusty nails once again taking on a silver sheen. Inside the crate, a large statue made of solid metal was bathed in the energy, illuminated by the moving, shimmering light. The dull, aged metal took on a new shine, its limbs and torso glowing as if they’d been scrubbed by the powerful energy. The eyes of the statue opened suddenly, burning with a sadistic energy all their own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Despite the sounds of crickets chirping and frogs croaking, it was quite the quiet evening in a small rural desert area in the western part of Texas where two completely different families known for great musical talent lived only a few blocks away from each other. One family was known as “The Gogolala Jubilee Jug Band,” consisting of a purple-skinned player whose name was as the same as the instrument he played (a banjo), a grey fiddler named Paul, a green guitarist/trumpeter named Slim, a blue player named Jug, and a small young lady with a sunflower stemming from her hat named Eren. The other family was called “Lubbock Lou and his Jughuggers,” and it included Lubbock Lou himself playing jaw-harp, Gramps playing the fiddle, Slim Wilson playing the guitar, Bubba handling the jug, the shaggy-haired and sunglasses-wearing Zeke playing Banjo, and female vocalist Lou playing the tambourine.

On partially quiet evenings like this one in particular, the two families would step out onto the front porches of their old, withered, wooden cabins and try to outplay each other by playing as loud as they could while singing two completely different songs. With the Gogolala Jubilee singing “Ain’t Nobody’s Business But My Own” and Lubbock Lou and his Jughuggers singing “Borneo,” it seemed as if what they were doing was more on the lines of causing a horrible racket than creating separate masterpieces. Had the two families been living near other cabins, they would’ve been causing a huge disturbance in the neighborhood. But since their houses were the only two in the whole desert, they only had each other to disturb (which was the reason they dueled every evening—because one would perform at a time when the other was asleep).

Nothing on Earth could stop the two families as they were engaged in their “battle of the bands.” Nothing…except for a massive object that had fallen from the starry sky and crashed a few miles away from the two neighboring cabins. The impact of the crash was enough to not just cause an incredible tremor throughout the desert area, but also stop the bands from their battle.

“What on earth was that?” Slim Wilson exclaimed.

“Looks like one of dem shootin’ stars fell outta da sky!” Jug Gogolala deduced, while his younger and more energetic brother, Slim Gogolala, whooped excitedly as he jumped from the front porch of their cabin.

“Well, let’s get on over there and see what it is!”

Lubbock Lou and his band watched the Gogolala band as they departed from their porch and felt like they were being left out of the marvelous discovery. With their competitive spirit taking over more than usual, the band whooped their way to where the object had crashed, racing side-by-side with the Gogolala band.

“I bet we get there before ya’ll do!” Zeke declared.

“Think again, Jughuggers!” Paul Gogolala said, while panting with exasperation over his old age. “Ya’ll may stand a chance against me and me alone, but ya’ll gonna get whipped by my boys and even my girl.”

Once the two families had made it to the enormous crater that was created by the falling object, neither of them could believe its size or the bright, glowing item located in the center of it. It was a silver-colored crystal of great size and shape—its glow sparkling in the eyes of both the Gogolala band and the Jughuggers. Neither of them had seen such a gigantic gem (or any gem at all for that matter), and their greed began to take over very quickly, both families wanting to take it to live the dream of having a better home, a better place to settle it in, and—if possible—a chance to play on a real stage.

But before either of the families could jump into the crater and get their greedy hands on the enormous crystal, they were stopped by a sound that they haven’t heard in years: the sound of an approaching vehicle. Turning their heads, they noticed at least fifteen military jeeps, six black limousines, and a big, black cement truck heading in their direction with their headlights shining brightly in their eyes. When the vehicles were only a few feet away from them, they all stopped simultaneously and sat where they were for minutes, leaving the Gogolalas and Jughuggers wondering who were in them.

“I reckon we’re bein’ invaded by dem Decepticommunists.” Banjo assumed.

After just ten minutes, a car door opened from one of the black limousines and out stepped a man with a creased face and a dour expression in his early seventies wearing a military uniform decorated with badges, stars, and everything else that signified him as a dedicated figure. He was known only to soldiers and government agents both of which he commanded as General Luft, a strong representative of a top secret national security facility called C.O.V.N.E.T. And he was there that evening in the Texas desert not for the magnificent view of the stars, but strictly for business that came in form of the crystal sitting in the heart of the crater in the ground.

“Alright, boys,” Luft ordered to an unseen party, “Let’s take her home!”

Just as soon as the general’s order was given, soldiers piled in the military jeeps had stepped out from them and, with large hooks connected to long thin cables gripped firmly in their hands, dashed over to the crater and skidded slowly and carefully down the side of it. The Gogolalas and the Jughuggers watched with interest as the soldiers tied their ends of the cables around the enormous crystal while the other ends were connected to the front of their jeeps. Soon after the lead soldier gave the word, the drivers of the jeeps revved their engines and drove in reverse, tugging on the cables with great force and hauling the crystal out of the crater.

Once the crystal was completely out of the crater, the driver of the cement truck pressed a small orange button on his dashboard and its drum mechanically parted open to allow a large robotic claw to rise out of it. The Gogolalas and the Jughuggers gazed at the claw in shock, never before seeing such an inexplicable form of science in their whole lives, as the truck driver used the wheel to operate it towards the crystal. As soon as it was near the crystal, the claw grasped onto it and lifted it off the ground. Bringing the crystal with it, the claw returned back into the not-so-ordinary drum, right before it closed up and made the truck look normal again.

While the soldiers were coming out of the crater and pilling back up in their jeeps again, General Luft surveyed the scenery and took a long cold stare at the two rural families that were more than confused over what they had just witnessed the group doing. He wished that he could’ve done something to erase their memory of what they had seen, but with all of the budget cuts that the government had been taking as of late, it was hard to develop new technologies to prevent civilians from spreading rumors of alien sightings. But since the two families lived out in the middle of nowhere with no contact of the outside world other than a black-and-white television set, it was safe to say for Luft and his men that what happened that evening would not be mentioned to anyone else in the world.

The Gogolalas and the Jughuggers watched the members of C.O.V.N.E.T. leave the area with the enormous, intergalactic crystal in their possession, both feeling like their hopes and dreams were taken along with it. Even though they remotely had no idea what the crystal was or why Luft and his men would want it, they did know that something was extremely special about it to fall from space like it had.

“Wait! Stop! Please, stop!” A voice cried from nearby the two families, and they turned their heads once again to see three small and strange figures running in their direction. One was an elf-like creature wearing a pale, cream-colored tunic and his skin had an olive complexion with dark purple, shoulder-length hair; another was just like the first only she was a female wearing a golden-brown dress and a brown cloak with a pale complexion and long, fair hair; and the last was something that truly startled the Gogolalas and the Jughuggers—a dog-like creature with no legs or arms and had a vicious grow.

“ALIENS!” The two families screamed at the approaching figures, taking their appearance as some sort of an invasion plot that General Luft and his men had failed to alert them over.

Unbeknownst to the simple-minded southerners, the figures were the Gelflings known as Jen and Kira, who—while accompanied by Fizzgig—landed on Earth shortly after Moya had chased the silver orb there and detected a separation occurring between it and the Crystal of Truth. Through a strong plea by Jen, the two Gelflings and Fizzgig were allowed to land on Earth by using another one of Moya’s transport pods. Unfortunately, the group was late in obtaining the crystal and left to deal with the panicking Texas families as they began retreating to their cabins.

“Wait!” Jen cried, as he and Kira chased them up to their homes. “We need your help in getting the crystal back!” Although the Gogolalas and Jughuggers could understand exactly what the Gelfling was saying (which was surprising due to the fact that he was speaking in an alien language that would take millions of years for an earthling to decipher), the both of them had chosen not to fall prey to whatever sick experiments might’ve possibly awaited them.

Kira watched with great concern and confusion, as the Gogolalas retreated back into their cabin at the same time the Jughuggers did. “I don’t think they understand you, Jen.”

“Well, I certainly understand them, though I can’t figure out what ‘aliens’ mean.” Jen remarked.

“Then they must be frightened.”

“That’s understandable. They don’t know our kind or ever seen a Gelfling before.” Just as Jen finished what he was saying, a gunshot rang throughout the night air and some dirt was kicked up onto Jen’s feet by an unseen force. Neither of the Gelflings nor Fizzgig was alarmed by the gunshot, though they were slightly bewildered over how the dirt got on Jen’s feet. “What was that noise? And what made that dirt fly up like that?”

“Never mind about that, Jen.” Kira said. “We have to find that crystal.”

“You’re right.” Jen affirmed. “Let’s go ask one of these creatures…well, at least try to.” Jen looked to the Gogolalas’ cabin and pointed to it. “You go there, Kira.” He then pointed to the Jughuggers’ cabin. “And I’ll go there.”

“Alright, Jen.” Kira acknowledged, and she turned to Fizzgig, giving him a command in a language that he or any other critter on Thra would only understand, and then went with him to the Gogolalas’ cabin while Jen headed to the Jughuggers’.

On their way to the two cabins, several more gunshots rang throughout the air and more dirt was kicked up from the ground, spraying both Gelflings and their pet unpredictably. It wasn’t until Jen and Kira had approached the entrances to the two cabins that something truly unexpected occurred. There was a colossal exploding sound that was soon followed thereafter by a cannonball that had crashed through the front door of the Jughuggers’ cabin. If Jen were a foot taller than he was, the exploding cannonball would’ve surely taken his entire head along with the chunk of wood that was broken off the door on impact.

“What in the world…?” He noticed right away how the strange ball was heading in the direction of Kira, Fizzgig, and the door to the Gogolalas’ cabin. “Kira! WATCH OUT!”

Hearing the urgency in his voice, Kira turned in Jen’s direction just in time to notice the approaching cannonball. “OH, NO!” She immediately spread out her butterfly-like wings that were folded easily under her clothes and, using the cool night breeze, glided herself and Fizzgig away from the porch in time to avoid the cannonball as it crashed through the Gogolalas’ front door and into an withering grandfather clock that had been passed down for centuries.

“My grandpappy’s clock!” Paul angrily shouted from inside the cabin. “You stinkin’ Jughuggers! I’m gonna blow ya’ll sky high just fer that!” As soon as Paul and the rest of the Gogolala family stuck their rifles out of the windows of their home, Jen knew that there was no way he or Kira could contact with either of the families without getting themselves hurt or killed.

“KIRA! RUN!” The Gelfling cried, and just as he started running away from the Jughuggers’ cabin, the two families unleashed a different kind of battle—one that didn’t involve musical instruments, firing cannons and shotguns at each other until both of their houses crumbled to pieces.

Jen watched at a safe distance with Kira and Fizzgig close by his side, witnessing the unbelievable chaos that they had safely escaped from. “That was twice as worse than the Garthim attack on the Podlings’ village!”

“The weapons they used were nothing like I’ve ever seen before.” Kira commented, and Jen nodded in agreement with that sentiment. “We shouldn’t be here, Jen. Thra is gone…and there isn’t anything we can…”

“Yes, there is!” Jen snapped, and the frustrated tone in his voice was enough to startle Kira. The last time she heard him that angry was soon after that Garthim attack, when he was giving up on his journey to heal the Crystal of Truth and save all of Thra. But he wasn’t giving up on the one he was on now. Jen knew what he had to do and had high hopes of doing it. “Thra can still be saved, Kira. All we need is to find that crystal and bring it back to what’s left of it.”

Kira’s hand went to Jen’s and gently crested it, showing how much she shared his hope for bringing back their home. For a second, they were sharing a peaceful moment that they hadn’t had since the aftermath of the Garthim attack, as they lied peacefully in a mossy area. However, the moment was ruined as soon as Jen heard John Crichton’s voice over the communicator implanted in his right ear.

“Yo! Jen! Can ya hear me?”

Jen was still getting used to using the odd device that functioned as his only form of communication to his fellow companions on the Leviathan ship. “Yes, John. I can hear you.”

“How did the task of retrieving the crystal go?”

“Kira and I…we ran into unforeseen difficulties. Some strange creatures in monstrous machine came and took the crystal away.”

Crichton didn’t hesitate to let his irritation be evident, as he let out one huge sigh over the communicator. “Were these guys…these creatures…wearing black suits or wearing clothes that had lots of items pinned on them?”

“Yes, yes!” Jen exclaimed, surprised that Crichton would be so quick to pick up on something that he hadn’t even seen in person. “Do you know who these men are?”

“Unfortunately, I do.” Crichton replied. “You kids had better get your butts back on the ship. It looks like this situation just got frelled up to the max.”

Jen exchanged puzzled looks with Kira, as he ended the conversation between him by acknowledging his order. “Alright, John. We will be returning back to Moya shortly.”

“Right. Over.”

As soon as Jen heard the communicator shut off in his ear, he took it out from there, finding it a really uncomfortable object to have stuck up in there so close to his ear drum. He turned to Kira, who didn’t quite hear Crichton’s voice through the communicator and thus didn’t get the full conversation that he and Jen had. “John wants us to return to Moya. He believes our problem is worsening.”

All Kira could’ve done in reaction to what Jen said was place a hand over her mouth with concern and hold Fizzgig closer to her body. The two Gelflings trekked across the desert plains with much haste, until they were reunited with the transport pod again. As soon as they were boarded into the ship, they slowly rose into the air and rocketed back up into the starry sky, leaving behind an area that was once occupied by two cabins owned by two separate families that were forced to relocate due to “terrible disturbances.”

END OF CHAPTER ONE​

 

[The Count]

Very good work... Absolutely loved it all, what with the disturbing at the Mallory Gallery, Doom's home village and the mansion, and then the two Muppet hillbilly bands out in the desert. Shame the Gelflings' moment was ruined by Crychton, but they're on a mission after all. Please MW, post more when you can, of this and your other vonderful stories.

 

[muppetwriter]

Chapter Two​

Traveling Matt was a brave explorer and the only Fraggle to venture out of “The Rock” to explore the human world of what he called “Outer Space,” until his nephew, Gobo Fraggle, went out himself with four of his fellow friends who were—like Gobo—born as a not-so-ordinary form of Fraggles that some would refer to as “mutants.” Matt was unaware of this fact about his nephew, as well as the fact that he and his friends had all journeyed out of Fraggle Rock and took part in a battle that had changed their lives forever, and he continued to send postcards to him that ended up in the mail of Jerome “Doc” Christian, who thereafter threw it away in his trashcan. Normally, Gobo would pick it up, once he went through an old hole in the wooden wall paneling; but once he departed from “The Rock,” the postcards were sent away to the city dump.

But Matt still wrote his postcards to his nephew, as he arrived in New York City on his six-month journey through “Outer Space.” The elderly Fraggle was amazed by the illuminating appearance that Times Square had given off. All of the neon lights reminded Matt of a crystal cavern that he had come across one day while strolling through Fraggle Rock, with multi-colored crystals of all shapes and sizes shining brightly in his eyes. After coming across that section of Manhattan, he arrived at 42nd Street and Madison Avenue, which was where a newly remodeled, towering high-rise a bit north of Times Square known as the Baxter Building stood.

Once a slightly antiquated piece of New York history, the building—with its recent renovations—was now the popular and quite public home of the Fantastic Four, as well as Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker. The rooftop balcony, a part of the extensive space used as a home and office for Dr. Reed Richards, now carried the logo of the new group: the blazing and distinctive number four, with a small number two in the upper right hard corner of it, being the building’s most recent acquisition.

Right next door to the Baxter Building was one that was slightly older than it, housing a number of different areas, including a sound stage, control room, dressing rooms, lobby, commissary, and basement. Containing just about three stories total, it was known to the employees working there as KMUP, a television network run by the Muppets and also where their number one broadcasted program, Muppets Tonight, was filmed before a live studio audience. Both the Baxter Building and the KMUP Station fascinated Matt, though he was more interested in visiting the latter.

As the old explorer approached the front entrance to the building, he noticed a lengthy line of waiting New York citizens that had ordered in free tickets for the evening show a week earlier. Even though Matt wasn’t absolutely certain why there were so many “silly creatures” gathered there, he walked right up to the line and stood in the center of it, undetected by any of the waiting strangers. At first Matt believed the waiting to be some form of meditation, feeling a hint of peace and tranquility as he stood with the silly creatures. But that peace and tranquility was soon disrupted just as the line began moving into the building, and Matt found himself being pushed around roughly by the New York citizens, as he was brought into the studio.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The last time the KMUP crew had the Fantastic Four booked for an appearance, it was one of the most hectic nights of their lives there, because the team had to cancel at the last minute due to a fierce attack planned by the evil, demented Dr. Victor Von Doom. Luckily, things were brought back under control, once the heroic team stepped in together with their last two members, Bunsen and Beaker, by their side. Although it wasn’t just Bunsen and Beaker accompanying them; five ordinary teenage girls with magical powers that were fuelled from Kandrakar, a spiritual fortress and temple at the center—the very heart—of the universe and infinity, beyond both time and space. It was created to house those whose task was to watch over other worlds and dimensions.

It was the responsibility of Will Vandom, leader of the Guardians of the Infinite Dimensions, to take control of the Heart of Kandrakar (a magical pendant that enabled the Guardians into their superhero alter egos by channeling the power of the Aurameres (physical representations of their powers) into them. And although the Guardians had some power without the Heart, their strength was greatly increased by it. Without it, the Guardians’ powers would be drawn from their life force instead of the Aurameres.

Though the Guardians possessed remarkable powers, they each lived regular lives. Will was a bit of a tomboy, but was always sensitive towards other people’s feelings. When Guardianship and school were stressing her out, she would always turn to swimming. She loved animals in general, but she was especially crazy about frogs and tried to collect anything and everything frog related except for the actual amphibian itself—that she would leave to the times she hung around Robin the Frog, nephew of Kermit the Frog. Will had been known to possess the power of quintessence.

With light-brown, slightly wavy hair and greenish-blue eyes, Irma Lair was known to possess the power over water. She was a spunky, cheerful, optimistic, and humorous person and compared to the other members of her team, she often appeared to be the least serious as she was known to crack jokes about almost anyone she came in contact with. Despite her tendency to joke around when faced with a problem, she was a kind-hearted person that cared about those she had relationships with, including a humorous lothario, sexual innuendo-spewing king prawn named Pepe.

The shy and very smart African American-born Taranee Cook was known to possess the power over fire. She could be a bit of a “goody-goody” at times and always did what was right and proved to be the most intelligent member of the group, her favorite subject being mathematics. Taranee had a great distaste for bugs, with the exception of butterflies, grasshoppers, and crickets. Her mother was a judge and father was an ex-lawyer turned psychologist, and she always believed that they were overprotective of her. And her older brother was really kind and respectful to her and her friends. When people played with Taranee’s feelings, or when she got angry, her powers start up.

The eldest daughter of a high-class family, Cornelia Hale was somewhat a materialistic person, who cared a lot about her looks and fashion, and was known to possess the power over earth. She was also overconfident and thought she could do just about anything by herself. Still she was deep down a considerate person who could be very romantic. Cornelia was not always the most positive person, but managed to get through obstacles with an attitude. She was also very firm and stubborn, and the least likely of the Guardians to accept or believe something. And she also had a great affection towards Caleb, a human teenage boy from a red-orange planet named Meridian that was ruled by a young queen known as Elyon Brown, a close friend of Cornelia’s.

The last member of the team was an Asian-American girl with a cheerful, full of energy, optimistic personality named Hay Lin, who possessed the power over air. She was an extremely creative person who loved to draw, paint, and sketch and could be considered a slight comic-alien nerd at heart because of her love to collect comics and alien collectibles. Her family owned a Chinese restaurant called the Silver Dragon where she often worked at to help her family out. She had a habit of writing people’s names, dates, numbers, and anything else that might come in handy on the back of her hand or arm so she wouldn’t forget anything important during one of her creative brainstorms. It was soon after the first time they all had transformed and came together as friends was when she discovered that their names spelled out the word, “W.I.T.C.H.”

Thanks to their connections to the KMUP crew, as well as the very special guests that they had booked that evening, Will and her friends were able to get into the building through a much easier and less crowded way: walking in through the back entrance. Accompanying the girls that evening were their dates for the night: Matt Olsen (Will’s date and one of the two boys there that knew the girls’ secret after following them through a portal and finding himself in Meridian; he was the lead guitarist and singer for his amateur band, Wreck 55, and also possessed the powers of Shagon, the Angel of Malice), Martin Tubbs (Irma’s date, a nerdy boy who had a monster crush and sometimes proved to be slightly annoying), Nigel Ashcroft (Taranee’s red-haired date, a boy who was part of Matt’s amateur band and liked Taranee for her “goodness”), Caleb (who was, of course, Cornelia’s date), and Eric Lyndon (Hay Lin’s shiny black-haired, dark-eyed date, a new boy in town who she had a crush on at the same time he had one on her).

“Hope you boys don’t mind a little weirdness, ‘cause a lot of it goes on in this place.” Will warned.

Matt just shrugged it off with a hearty laugh. “Are you kidding? I’ve loved the Muppets since I was three. There isn’t any madness that I couldn’t handle from them.”

“Same here.” Caleb affirmed. “I haven’t faced off against Lurdins and Phobos long enough to be intimidated by the insanity that runs throughout this place.”

“Caleb,” Cornelia said with a deadpan look on her face, “They’re just puppets. Lighten up for one hour, will ya?” Caleb admitted that he was acting a little tense, even while on “vacation” with his friends. It had been months since he and the Guardians had faced off against his own mother, Nerissa (former leader of the Guardians of the Veil and keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar, before being corrupted by its power), who was imprisoned forever in the Heart of Meridian (a pendant that was like the Heart of Kandrakar, only equally as powerful). He carried the Heart of Meridian around his own neck, in order to make sure his mother was still trapped in the allusion of living her dream of conquering the universe while keeping her in memory at the same time. Cornelia couldn’t understand why he was keeping it with him at all times, but didn’t bother asking questions as long as he was satisfied that his mother was under imprisonment.

Martin let out a weird chuckle, as he began taking pictures of the interior of the station and blinding a few employees in the process. “Where’s Kermit? I’ve gotta meet Kermit, man! He’s the best!” Seeing how much her date was making a fool out of himself in front of the group and everyone at the station, Irma knew that she had to find some way to get him away from them—at least until the show started.

“H’okay, Seymour.” A Spanish-accented voice uttered near the group, and Irma turned to see her old friend, Pepe the King Prawn, practicing with Seymour the Elephant while wearing black leather jackets, dark sunglasses, and—in Seymour’s case—an earring on the right earlobe. “We’re doing a classic here, so let’s not try ta screw it up, h’okay?”

“Sure, Pepe. Whatever you say.” Seymour agreed, nodding in agreement as Pepe went over to a stereo system and placed a disc in the CD player that spun shortly afterwards. It wasn’t long before a karaoke version of a song performed in a duet by Aretha Franklin and George Michael played through the speakers, and Pepe began singing along with it.

“Like a warrior joo fights…And wins de battle…I know de taste of victory. Dough I went drough some tights…Consumed by de shadows…I was crippled emotionally.”

Seymour had almost missed his cue, if Pepe hadn’t elbowed him in the stomach. “Oh, yeah! Ahem…Somehow I made it through the heartache…Yes I did. I escaped…I found my way out of the darkness…I kept my faith…”

“I know jou did, h’okay.”

“Kept my faith!”

Seymour and Pepe had joined together for the chorus. “When the river was deep, I didn’t falter…When the mountain was high, I still believed…When the valley was low, it didn’t stop me. No, no! I knew you were waiting…I knew you were waiting for me!”

Seeing Pepe and Seymour there rehearsing brought a great deal of relief over Irma, as she finally saw her chance of directing Martin’s embarrassing behavior to another direction at a safer distance. She tapped on his shoulder, pointed to the two Muppets, and said, “Hey, Martin! Check it out…dinner and a show.”

Martin stopped flashing his camera long enough to see what it was that Irma was talking about. When he noticed Pepe and Seymour, he instantly got excited, but also got a little confused over the analogy in Irma’s statement. “Dinner and a show?”

“Yeah, you get to watch an elephant tear a leather jacket to shreds with his own weight while you can decide whether or not you’d prefer the shrimp dancing next to him.” Irma joked, while Pepe—hearing what she said—stopped right in the middle of their rehearsal and turned to her.

“I heard dat, h’okay! I am not a shrimp! I am a…”

“King Prawn.” The girls and their dates said at the same time.

Pepe shook his head, feeling as if no one would ever understand the hard work he did to be extraordinarily sexy and keep the tasty fish smell off of him with the sweet scent of Axe cologne (he really did buy into those commercials, where the women would crawl all over the man like he was fresh meat). Seymour, not recognizing the girls or their dates like Pepe seemed to have at that moment, wondered if they were still rehearsing or finished for the evening. The elephant hoped that he was, mostly because the earring was hurting him dearly.

“Are we done now, Pepe?”

The king prawn looked up at his partner, looking slightly exhausted. “Yeah, yeah, amigo. Take five.”

“Thank God!” Seymour exclaimed, and Pepe looked at him puzzlingly. “I mean…thank you, Pepe. Thank you!” Before saying anything else that would’ve gotten him in deep trouble, Seymour dashed away to his dressing room, where he could have his makeup artist remove the earring. Meanwhile, the girls and their dates approached the king prawn curiously, as he removed his leather jacket and sunglasses.

“George Michael and Aretha Franklin?” Cornelia exclaimed, with a hint of disgust in her voice. “You could be performing ‘Faith’ and ‘Respect’ together for a new remix, and it would still be out-of-date.”

“Shows what jou know, Earth Girl.” Pepe contradicted. “When de day comes as Aretha and George Michael both makes comebacks, jou’ll be sorry jou said dat.” Cornelia just rolled her eyes, while the other girls and the boys chuckled.

“So tell us this, Pepe,” Will stepped in and said, “What the heck does that song have to do with tonight’s guest appearance by the Fantastic Four?”

Pepe seemed rather confused by Will’s question. “Who said anything about tonight’s show? We’re doing t’is for de wedding.” Now it was the girls and their dates’ turn to appear confused, as they just pondered over the sudden news that Pepe gave them. That was until Matt slapped his own forehead in reaction to his own forgetfulness, as he remembered hearing about the subject days before.

“Oh, that’s right. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman are getting married tomorrow.”

Hay Lin was more ecstatic than the rest of the girls were. “Oh, wow! That is so awesome!” Her excitement had quickly turned to horror in seconds, upon realizing something that would’ve been important to remember had she been given notice days in advance. “Oh, no! I haven’t picked out the perfect dress to wear for the occasion! None of us have! How are we going to be ready if we don’t have the dresses? We can’t…”

“Hay Lin! Snap out of it!” Taranee shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her body a little. If Irma and the group thought that Martin was embarrassing them with his out-of-control behavior, Hay Lin was practically making them look crazier than the Muppets in the backstage area that were all staring at them while not doing a single bit of work.

With the uncomfortable silence following all of the shouting, it was enough to have the host of Muppets Tonight, a hip Muppet with multi-colored dreadlocks named Clifford, step out into the hallway and see what was going on. “Hey, hey, hey! What’s with the racket, man? I mean, I wanna hear some racket, but the good kind, not the wild and crazy kind!”

“De wild and crazy kind is our good kind, h’okay.” Pepe said with a chuckle, while Clifford—who was taking the situation very seriously—wasn’t.

“My point is that we are having one of the biggest guest stars on our show, before the biggest day for two of them, and we want this all to go smooth like butter, am I right?” Clifford asked, and Pepe, the Guardians, and their dates all nodded in agreement with him. More of the KMUP staff walked in as Clifford was talking. Characters like Nigel the Director, Johnny Fiama, Sal Manilla, Seymour, Spamela Anderson, Bill the Bubble Guy, Andy & Randy Pig, and Eugene (Nigel’s Assistant Director). “I’m dead serious on this one, guys. In recent years, we’ve been the only television station in all of Manhattan to have the most coverage of the Fantastic Four Plus Two team. And with the marriage being tomorrow, it can be a sure bet that everybody in this city will be tuning into to KMUP. Ya’ll dig me?” Everyone nodded his or her heads, except for Andy and Randy, who both raised their hands at the same time—much to Clifford’s despair. “Yeah, guys. What is it now? Did I use too many big words for ya, like ‘marriage’ or ‘everybody’?”

“Nope.” Andy said.

“We were just curious to know how you can be dead and serious at the same time.” Randy added.

“Yeah, we can dig ya if you are.” Andy stated, and Clifford, along with everyone else, shook their heads in annoyance over the dim-witted nephews of Miss Piggy and their failure to understand the concept of metaphors.

In an attempt cut the awkward silence that had fallen over the room after Andy and Randy’s unusual comments, Johnny and Sal stepped up and addressed Clifford with big smiles on their faces. Johnny—usually the one who had done much of the talking—had said, “You’ve got nothin’ to worry about, Cliffy-baby. The Fantastic Four have been like a second family to us, especially with Bunsen and Beaker on the team. Tonight will be the best night of their lives.”

“That’s right!” Sal stepped in. “And when Johnny Fiama promises you a best night, you are without a doubt going to have the…best…night…evah!”

“Thank you, Sal.” Johnny acknowledged.

“No problem, Johnny. And don’t even worry about that one night when you stood me up on that dinner we were gonna have at the Sizzler to go on a date with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, because we all wanna know if Meadow was gonna be the one to get whacked in that Sopranos series finale. I bet ya she was, because who the heck has that much trouble parallel parking? I mean…”

“Thank you, Sal!” Johnny interjected with much base in his voice that silenced his hyperactive bodyguard.

After listening to Johnny and Sal, Clifford shook and lowered his head in great anguish. Despite the fact that it was nighttime and they were all standing indoors, he placed his sunglasses over his eyes to keep everyone from seeing the fear in them. Walking away from the KMUP staff, he returned to his dressing room where he would be momentarily praying for a good show or a quick, painless death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Susan Storm stood staring at the Muppets Tonight stage, which almost closely resembled the set of a talk show, whether it was David Letterman or Jay Leno. She watched several figures all around it, setting up cameras and making sure they were functioning properly while checking boom mikes or lavalieres to see (or perhaps hear) if the sound was picking up okay, not too loud or too silent. Susan lingered on the activity around the stage, the scurrying and the action that she was not a part of, grateful to have something else to focus on. The Muppets were always good at just that—making someone feel relaxed with their comical zaniness and shenanigans after having a stressful day. And the past few days for Sue had been more than stressful, with the day of her and Reed’s wedding approaching. Doing an appearance on Muppets Tonight was just the thing she needed to ease her stress.

A crowd had immediately formed around her and her family as soon as they’d arrived at the back entrance to the station earlier that afternoon to do some rehearsals for the skits they would be starring in during tonight’s live broadcast. She tried to block out the squeals of delight from the onlookers, the rush of the crowd that usually seemed to suck all the oxygen out of the room. She attempted to refocus, to ignore the voices gathering around them, the clicking of cell phone cameras, the murmurs and whispers that stuck to her skin so quickly that sometimes she could feel them before she heard them. Before the strange hands touched her arms or shoulders. One time, there’d been a tug on her long blond hair.

Of all the things that had changed about Sue’s life since the cosmic storm—the storm that altered her DNA and gave her powers beyond anything imaginable, powers that drew her back into the world of Reed Richards, powers that led to the defeat and death of Victor Von Doom—it was being thrown into the public eye that remained the most difficult. She disliked it intensely: the constant staring, the roving cameras that followed them wherever they went, the intense scrutiny that came with such attention.

For the most part, she had accepted the fate that had befallen them. If they suddenly had powers that could be useful to mankind, so be it. She was willing to share them and to do her part to make the world a safer place. She wasn’t haunted by the changes in her life, the way she suspected Ben Grimm might be; nor did she relish the limelight the way her younger brother, Johnny, did. Her life didn’t become as increasingly chaotic and flipped after her transformation as Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker’s had after theirs—they might’ve been Muppets, but even they weren’t used to that much craziness. And Reed? He barely noticed anything beyond a book or his PDA. With the outside world rushing so violently into their private space, she often wondered how he could remain so clueless to the million different ways their lives had been invaded.

Sue felt a small weight in her chest. She rubbed her hands together, staring at the slim band of silver around her finger, trying to dismiss her cranky, cynical thoughts. She knew these weren’t the musings of a hero, or of someone grateful for her life and upcoming wedding, or of someone even the least bit fantastic. It happened to her sometimes, when the crush of it all became a bit too much, when she’d retreat inside herself, if only to get a break from the attention and the spotlight. But the thoughts were beginning to stay with her for longer periods of time, and even her power of invisibility could not make them go away.

She walked over to where Reed and Ben were sitting, waiting for the show to begin. The KMUP studio was large and quite generic, she felt, for such a three-story building. An overhead television caught her attention as she noticed the staff members in the backstage area staring intently at the talking flat screen. The TV showed the weary, bespectacled Muppet News Flash anchor talking about Susan and the team.

The Muppet Newsman stared blankly into space and spoke: “It’s being called the wedding of the century. Reed Richards and Susan Storm, also known as Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, will try again to tie the knot tomorrow at a private ceremony at the newly remodeled Baxter Building. They’re hoping the fifth time’s the charm, as the unlucky couple has repeatedly had to reschedule the event due to ‘unforeseen circumstances.’ But even the delays haven’t dampened the enthusiasm of the couple’s fans.”

Susan cringed at the thought of her personal life being so vividly displayed for the world to see. She and Reed were in love. It wasn’t their fault that things kept intruding on their wedding plans. It wasn’t like they were hesitant or filled with doubt. She made her way over to Reed and Ben. They were all dressed in their uniforms in order to make for dramatic impact on tonight’s broadcast of Muppets Tonight. Johnny was standing a few feet from where they were, surrounded—as always—by adoring fans. He was too busy signing autographs and having his picture taken to notice the others. And close nearby him, Bunsen and Beaker were showing off their latest invention, a Muppet Mobile Laboratory vehicle that they had first used earlier in the year at the Disney’s California Adventure theme park, to a few of their fans, calling them by name and telling them the color of their shirts while responding to unique questions.

Reed stood by Susan, as he had his nose buried in some work. She smiled and rolled her eyes at Ben, who smiled back at her, knowing Reed almost as well as she did but was less frustrated by his distractions. She knew Ben had been working with Reed for years—nothing much surprised him about the absentminded professor Reed so often claimed to be.

It wasn’t long before Reed had finally looked from the papers and PDA in front of him to the television monitor as if noticing it for the first time, noting the continuing coverage of their wedding. “Unbelievable,” he said, “Bizarre anomalies have been occurring all over the world, defying every known law of physics. And all the media want to know about is what china pattern Sue and I picked out.”

“Which one did you pick out?” Ben asked, trying to lighten his friend’s mood. “The blue with the little flowers? ‘Cause I liked those.”

Susan ignored Ben’s attempt at humor and spoke directly to her fiancé. “It’s happening again, isn’t it?” A frown tarnished her beautiful face.

Reed spoke up quickly, noticing her unhappiness. “No! We’re not postponing anything. Not this time. We’re having a nice, safe ceremony at the Baxter Building. No interruptions.” Reed went to take her hand but she pulled it away, either not wanting to be comforted or simply not believing him. He stretched his arm around her slim body and eventually grabbed her hand, the one with the silver band, looking deep into her eyes. “This is going to be the wedding you’ve always dreamed of. And I am not going to let anything get in the way of that. Not even the mysterious transformation of matter at the subatomic level.”

Susan couldn’t help but smile as Reed released her from his tender grip. “Reed Richards, that’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.” She was about to pull Reed in for a kiss when Johnny pushed in between them, placing his arms around the couple.

“Which is pretty pathetic, when you think about it.” He said, grinning from ear to ear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Outside on the street, a large black suburban with government plates screeched to a halt in front of the KMUP station, catching the attention of a few attendees that were still waiting to get in. The doors were pushed open quickly, and several soldiers leapt out of the imposing car. General Luft was one of the men that hopped out, leading his aide, Captain Frankie Raye (an attractive woman with ice-blue eyes, sharp angular cheekbones, and an equally dour demeanor), and the rest of his comrades. Captain Raye walked quickly, not unlike a model on a runway, but with a much more serious task at hand.

Upon entering the KMUP station, Luft and his group had passed in front of the several waiting attendees who instantly moaned in frustration at the sight of the people that were “cutting” in front of them all. One teenage Muppet fan wearing a green Muppet Show jacket over a black t-shirt with the Electric Mayhem band illustrated on it had stepped up and confronted Luft, as soon as he was near the front entrance. “Hey, dude! No cuts! You either get in the back of the line like everyone else or don’t get in it at all!”

General Luft didn’t seem very intimidated by the typical fan. He stopped in his tracks, leaving his followers to stop in their tracks as well, and turned to face the fan, looking him dead straight in the eye and feeding off a sense of intimidation that the teenager wished he could’ve given off himself. “Don’t test me, son. If I were you and the rest of your Muppet geek friends, I’d go straight home. Because this show is over.”

With one simple gesture, General Luft ordered his men to usher the attendees away from the building. Though they were confused and angered by the inconvenient interference, the fans went home feeling like they were robbed of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of seeing two marvelous groups come together live on stage. But Luft couldn’t care less about their disappointment. He was on an important mission that evening, which involved the Fantastic Four Plus Two themselves, and he wasn’t going to let any complaining fans get in his way.

END OF CHAPTER TWO​