OZAI: Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

"So tell me…what do you think determines success in people?" Darth asked. He and Kila were sitting together at a table as he sipped on a strange pink drink with, oddly enough, blue bubbles popping up at the top as he took small sip. Kilana was downing the biggest bottle of Vortian Firewhisky the Irken Empire had been able to procure. The dining area of the Massive was surprisingly well-kept…granted it smelled too strongly of bleach, but still…

"Me? Personally? I used to think it was height. That's how it usually is for YOU kind, right?"

"Until we instituted the council, yes."

"Now though…I'm thinking that it has something to do with voices. You can sort of tell, the voice that someone has…there's like some…quality of success in it. It comes out in what they write, what they say…" She shrugged. "I'm not totally sure, but that's my guess. And you?"

"Well…" The Hierophant smiled and placed his hands together. "I'd have to say head size."

"Head…size?" Kila asked as a group of Irken soldiers gathered at the various tables to eat lunch with their commanding officers.  

"Yes, I've heard the voices of many I have met upon the news, speaking as important people. Rich people. Famous people. If there is one thing I've noticed out of the many people I've met, it's that all of those people I hear had one thing in common when I first encountered them…they all had HUGE heads." Darth informed her, smiling. "I'm not sure whether the huge heads CAUSE success or whether they are simply a side effect, but if someone has a big head AND a big set of hair, well…that's known as a "sure bet" when trying to determine who's going to succeed in life."

"Kinda like the equivalent of wagering on the one horse in a race that, out of all the others, DOESN'T have, say, plastic bags over their heads?" Kila remarked.

"Indeed." Darth intoned. "Interesting metaphor."

"I'm kinda creepy."

"You're in good company." Darth said, showing off his surprisingly sharp teeth.

"Say…how come there aren't too many girls around here?" Kila asked. "I seem to be the only one here." She told Darth, her eyes sweeping the cafeteria of the enormous spaceship.

"They're all hiding from Larb. His pick-up lines are the worst you've ever heard. You've. Ever. Heard." He repeated, eyes narrowing, lips taut.

"Heyyyyyy." A voice said behind Darth, and he pinched the area between his eyes, sighing as Kila blinked at the sight of the huge-headed (she could only assume) Head Guard Larb. "How's it hangiiiiiin, Big D?"

"…please…don't call me that. Ever since I read Harry Potter that nickname has been RUINED for me." Darth insisted, shaking his head as Larb sat down next to him.

"I got some good news and some bad news." Larb remarked. "You know how Zim was never supposed to be able to send private messages up to this ship without a special code?"

"…he cracked it, didn't he?" The Hierophant asked, sighing deeply.

"Yeah, but the good news is Red and Purple came up with an idea to send a spike back. We have a camera set up. Next time he logs on and tries to send a message, he gets an electrical shock from his computer. Want to come…uh…um…"

"You can say it. I won't mind." Darth remarked.

"…come and see?" Larb finished lamely.

"As soon as I finish with my Arcadian Whizzpopper." Darth said, taking another sip. "Ahhhh. Like being kissed by a thousand butterflies with sugar sprinkled on their wings." He intoned.

"Well, we're going to start the whole show up in two hours. Meanwhile, I gotta do my duty and head off." He looked over at Kila and winked. "Hey there bright eyes, I'm feelin' kinda hungry. Mind if I-"

SFX: MEOWR

Kila's eyes bugged out. Then she snarled and the vine-like creature named Puddingsack snaked out of Kila's labcoat and hissed in Larb's face. "Ooh, kitty's got CLAWS!" Larb remarked, stepping back before waving goodbye.

"I warned you." Darth told her.

"Forshke, that was AWFUL.." She admitted.

"You think THAT was bad? You should have seen him at Christmas when he was our Secret Santa. He kept asking all of the ladies if he could jingle their bells."

"Say, next time, can Puddingsack bite-"

"Yes."  He said quickly.

"…I LIKE you." Kila decided, placing her paws on the table. "I-YEEEEECH!" She reeled back. "You? Her? THREE TIMES? ON THIS?!?" She asked out loud, spiraling back away from the table.

Darth looked down at the table he and Kila had been sitting at. Then he looked at Kila. Her eyes widened as Puddingsack looked at his mistress with concern.

"…I think I might be in trouble." She realized as a dozen different thoughts began to pop into her head, none of them belonging to HER…

MEANWHILE!

"Alright. Now, repeat after me." Sonic said, holding up a dagger to Ember's throat. She was the last one remaining. "I pledge my life and my death."

"I pledge my life and my death."

"To the Revolution and its principles, which we keep in our hearts."

"To the Revolution and its principles, which we keep in our hearts."

"On my oath, before my assembled brethren."

"On my oath, before my assembled brethren."

"I promise to keep the secret from this day on until my death."

"I promise to keep the secret from this day on until my death."

"You are now baptized anew…" Sonic nodded and put the dagger on the table behind him, nodding at Ember. "A babe of the revolution."

"For the Revolution?" She asked.

"For the Revolution!" Sonic proclaimed.

"The Revolution!" Everyone cheered.

"Brewski time!" Frequency cheered, tossing beers left and right from a cooler. Sonic clinked a beer with Ember as Creepie stood by the Biker Mice.

"Glad to have you on board." She said happily. "While SEGA deals with my mother's off-shore assets, I'll need you taking care of her goons here out on the streets. I want all those other coal bosses taken TOTALLY!"

She slammed her fist into her palm. "OUT!"

Another slam.

"OF!"

ANOTHER slam.

"COMMISSION!"

"You got it, boss." Throttle said, saluting along with Modo and Vinnie.

"Say…Ember…think ya could help me with something?" Frequency asked his girlfriend.

"Like what?"

"Well, you see, I got a stain on my shorts, and I was wondering if these guys keep stain remover in the…closets…get it?" He reasoned.

"…you're absolutely right I think they might let me take you to the nearest closet!" She remarked happily, dragging him towards the nearest closet and shutting the door…shutting and LOCKING.

"Say, does Sumdactoria play too?" Modo asked Creepie.

"Oh no." She said, shaking her head. "Sari always insists that there aren't' any minorities that her dad takes advantage of, so we don't bother her…and she doesn't bother us." The pale girl explained, waving her hand in the air.

"Whenever I call her up, she's always WATCHING something on TV. Are ALL city folk there like that?" Amy asked White.

White responded quickly. Perhaps a bit TOO quickly. "I'm sure she'll support the revolution eventually once she sees how much good that can be accomplished."  He then grabbed ahold of a couple of cheeses on sticks and waved them in the air. "Raaaah! Godzilla's attacking Downtown Tokyo!" He proclaimed, making stomping motions as he grinned, making Amy giggle. "ARRRGH!"

"Oh, you are so CUTE. No wonder Erin likes you." Ember laughed, grabbing his shoulder. "Look, I gotta tinkle. Lead the way, hotshot." The Manhattan-accented girl asked.

"Man, look at him." Jet muttered. "Huh. One day I'LL have money. Prestige. Power. And on that day-"

"White will still have more." Sonic wisecracked.

…

…

…

…to say that Sumdactoria had no minority working force wasn't…entirely…

True.

"Guys, we got another job to do." A hulking robotic figure stated. He had a blue helmet upon his head with a spike-like protrusion in the top center. He was covered in white and red armor, making one think of a fire engine. He had brilliant blue eyes, like the other members of his group, and was quite muscular.

Did I say ALL of his group had blue eyes? A few of them weren't, and they were the ones who usually caused trouble. They resembled construction vehicles brought to life, complete with hard hats and grey "skin". One of them even had low-riding pants so you could see a "plumber's crack". Ew.

"Can't this wait a few seconds?" Mixmaster asked. "Me and Scrapper 'r tryin' to watch porn."

"It's hot. But sad." Scrapper admitted, gesturing at the TV screen while Optimus's Autobots stood around the Constructicons. "You just KNOW that Megatron's molesting Starscream!"

"It's true. He is." Sari admitted, sitting in a plushy red chair on the side. How long she'd been watching you will never know.

Truth was, things were easier over in Sumdactoria because of machine labor. Sumdactoria hired many, many people to do repairs on the machines, and many many more to do construction work because, frankly, the city wasn't doing so well.

Most of its factories, where the Autobots and Constructicons worked in, were in the poorer regions of the city. The old wooden buildings had rickety stairs, splintered and sagginf floors, windows that were barely, if ever, washed, and CARDBOARD had been used in some cases to replace broken windowpanes. The lack of ventilation made the air foul and diseased. In short, the places were disasters waiting to happen, but there were so many of them and since Prof. Sumdac wanted to make sure human hands were doing a good job on building repairs, it meant they could only fix one factory at a time.

Granted there were less firetrap factories now, but unfortunately today…

"We gotta report HERE?" Bumblebee whined as he looked over the huge meat-packing factory. The place had all it's windows cracked. There was a foul smell, a mixture of raw meat and, in some cases, oil spilled during accidents. The laser cutters they used to cut the meat into slices, then package, could get erratic under the strain of hot weather…and today was supposed to be a scorcher. " We're gonna get our fingers cut off again!"

"At least our standard of living's better than over in South Park. Did you HEAR the news?" Lugnut asked, pushing the door oen as they walked inside. "This one kid, Jimmy Valmer…he got Swine Flu. I heard his parents wanted him to keep working and it's only because of doctor's orders that he stayed in his bed!"

"I heard that SATANISTS kill off the weaker people in South Park. They've got a church for EVERYTHING down there." Scrapper whispered.

"I heard you can save a bunch of money on your car insurance by switching to Geico." Sari remarked.

All of the Autobots simultaneously held up their thumbs and grinned at you. Yes, you. "It's TRUE!" They all proclaim.

"Too bad WE can't be covered." Mixmaster muttered.

"Betcha wish you were a sports car instead, huh?" Scrapper asked.

THE NEXT DAY!

By now, the situation with the kids and the adults was a source of oddly infuriating humor…at least, to the younger generation. Some of the teens had jokes about it.

"How many adults does it take to get child to build character?"

"Two. One to hold the kid, the other to hold the whip."

Ah ha. AH HA. AH HA…HA…HA.

"This stinks." Kyle muttered. "I used to be able to see my own dad working a few dozen feet away from me here in this factory." He told Stan as they continued to work at the steel mill. "Now he's "Vice President of Operations" or something and has a cushy desk job. And me? I worked just as hard as he did and I'm not employing MY mom as a secretary!"

"Yeah. But, you know, if you DID do that, it would be pretty weird, dude." Stan admitted.

"…yeah, you're right." Kyle admitted.

"Hey. Guys." Jojo whispered, passing by them and sticking two pieces of paper into their pockets without Jimbo Kern noticing. Stan and Kyle took out the papers and read them over.

"Change is coming. Meet at the Barn at "The Burrow" tonight. 9'o'clock."

"You gonna go?" Kyle asked Stan.

"…I dunno…" Stan mumbled. "I got the feeling that something really…dangerous is coming. And all of this could be avoided if we tried TALKING to our parents."

"Well MY dad won't listen." Kyle told him.

"Mmm-hmm-hmma-hmmm-mmm." Kenny muttered.

"I know you don't have any parents so you can't talk to THEM. What about Grim? He runs the orphanage next to his house, talk to him!"

"He's the complete opposite of a nun. He wouldn't listen, dude." Cartman insisted. "He's a total douche and his outfit is stupid."

"Remember when his cloak caught on fire?" Kyle asked them all.

They all laughed uproariously at that memory, making Jimbo frown. "Hey!" He yelled. "Quiet or it's overtime for all of you!"

"But I thought you were off-duty tonight?" Butters called out.

Jimbo shrugged. "Yeah, but I'll just get some teenagers to do it for me. It's pretty easy, I just pay them in "Playboys"."

THAT NIGHT…

Stan paced back and forth in his room. He frowned, sighing. It was 8:00. In an hour, the other children would be meeting at the barn in Junior's farm. Should he go? Should he stay?

"…not yet." He decided out loud. "I need to talk to Dad. I need to get him and the others to LISTEN." He insisted. "Before something we can't stop gets started."

He put his jacket and his poofball hat back on, exiting his room and heading down the stairs. "Dad! DAD! I need to…oh."

A note on the table. Stan picked it up and looked it over. "Be right back. Beer."

"AGAIN?" Stan frowned angrily and ripped the note up into little pieces. His dad had been taking half of HIS paychecks and spending it on beer, treating Stan's money like it was an allowance, or RENT that he could take back at any time. Stan had EARNED that money. His dad's cushy geologist job was ridiculously easy. His position on the council required him to show up at a few meetings and just TALK. The ones who actually DID things in town were kids just like him!

And did they get thanks? Any kind of appreciation?

A low, boiling fury was rising in Stan Marsh as he stormed down the sidewalk, headed for the bar. He could see his dad was tossing a beer bottle…probably his fifth or sixth one, into a trash can nearby. Randy Marsh turned around, moustache quivering, face flushed and drunken and red as the other men of South Park looked at him. "Hey Stan, what's goin' on?" He muttered.

"Was it "Two Dollar Margarita Night" Again?" Stan snapped angrily.

"Yeeeeep." Randy said, burping slightly.

Stan tried not to get angry. Lord, help me love the little children and the drunks. He didn't notice there was an ominous building of creepy music in the background.

"Hey Stan!" Randy asked.

"…yeah?" He finally got out.

"You know, I've always wanted to tell you off for years, but I've never had the nerve! You…STINK!"

"…uh, what?" Stan asked. By now a dozen or so kids were watching the scene.

"Boy, Stan's dad SUCKS." Coraline remarked as Lilo stood by her.

"Stan, uh…maybe we should just go…" Kyle spoke up nervously. "I'm starting to hear the Apreggio in Strings…that's bad stuff…"

"You and your entire operation stinks! I quit!"

"…who do you think you are? ME? Just-just get oughta the way, you're acting like a total idiot…well, more like an idiot than USUAL!" Stan snapped. He was angry.

"OOOOOH!" All of Randy's bar friends remarked.

"Ooooh, well that sounds like a smartass to me, Staaan!"

YOINK! He picked Stan up, brought him over to a nearby tree stump and held out one hand as Stephen put a paddle in it.

"Well, to me it sounds like its time for a good old-fashioned paddling!"

"WHAT?!?" Stan exclaimed. "Dad, come on! This is stupid!"

"Well, then you shouldn't have been such a smartass, shouldn't ya?"

"You're gonna paddle me? I don't think so!" Stan proclaimed proudly.

"Oh YEAH?" Randy remarked.

"Comrades! Spring forth and save me!" He asked the kids nearby.

They blinked, looked at each other, then nervously looked away.

"…oh, well, fuck you guys! You guys are assholes!" He exclaimed.

Mr. Garrison grinned happily. "Aw, shit yeah!" He ran atop the roof via a fire escape and held up a large horn. "PADDLIIIIIIIIIIIING! PADDLIIIIIIIIIIIIING!"

"Aww, yeah! Sweet!" People immediately rushed over to the bar. By now a large crowd had gathered as other people grabbed paddles and Stan was then forced through an actual GAUNTLET of paddling.

"OW! YEOW! Dude, what the fuck?! Ow, h-hey, that was in the balls! Dude, seriously, that hit the balls-GAAAAAH!"

Finally he dropped to the ground, groaning. By now Randy was very…VERY drunk. He held his paddle up in the air, a strange gleam in his eyes. "Ha, got you now, freshman! I'm gonna teach you the lesson that it is not okay to be a FRESHMAN!"

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! The paddle struck his behind over and over again, making it jiggle with each strike as Stan howled and all of the adults laughed and laughed…

But not for long.

"Mr. Marsh, this has got…to stop." Lilo insisted, stepping forward. "You've got to stop it."

"What, drinking?" Randy asked, scratching his head. The other guys looked around at each other.

"No. ALL of it. You, your friends, EVERYONE! You keep taking advantage of your kids! We have to do work YOU ought to be doing. We have to work longer than you do, work HARDER than you do, for less MONEY than YOU earn! And you take most of the money that WE earn!"

Nani, who was in the crowd, blinked. "Lilo, really, working harder and eating a little less never-"

"Don't give me that! You're just repeating that phrase over and over and it doesn't MEAN anything! You're just using it to justify the fact that you don't respect your own KIDS!" Lilo yelled angrily, hands balled into fists. "You drink away our paychecks! You throw parties when we're up late at night in factories! You're…you're turning into…into…into PIGS!" She finally belted out.

Randy blinked stupidly. Then he frowned. "Lilo Pelekai…did you just call me a pig?"

"You ARE acting like a pig!" Lilo yelled. "When you become an adult, you're supposed to show some goddamn responsibility and you can't even stop drinking! YOU'RE supposed to be the one Stan looks up to in life, and what do he get? A lazy, slobby PIG who's almost as drunk as the mayor!"

"For the love of GOD, you're all doing more damage to us than you could possibly know! You could STOP all this if you bothered to just do your part and stop taking advantage of us!" Stan yelled.

"Paddle her Paddle her! Paddle her! Paddle her!" Randy's friends cheered. He looked down at the paddle in his hands, blinking slowly.

"Lilo, apologize to Mr. Marsh." Nani said quickly seeing that something awful was about to happen.

"I'm…not…sorry." She said firmly. "So what? You're going to hit me?"

"Nope. You're a girl.  A feller can't soak a lady." Randy remarked.

"Ah. Good. So you'll listen to me."

"Nope. Hey kids. Tomorrow is my day at the main factory. You all get tomorrow off if you beat her up." Randy said, turning to the other kids nearby.

"WHAT?!?" Lilo exclaimed as Cartman grinned. "My comrades would never, EVER-"

"BOMBARDMEEEEENT!" Coraline yelled eagerly.  

THWACKA-THWUMPA-THWONK!

One good punch to the eye knocked Lilo to the ground, giving her a black eye as the kids struck her again and again. Stan angrily rushed forward and grabbed the paddle out of his dad's hands. "STOP!" He yelled, rushing at them to knock them away.

Mayor Bartok, sniggering, kicked Stan in the stomach as some of the other men took Stan's jacket off and exposed his back while Randy held the paddle up. "Have to be taught RESPECT. Have to  be chastised…harshly…" He mumbled out.

"God dang it." Stan muttered.

White calmly lit a cigarette, ignoring the "thwacks" of Randy's continuous paddling of his son. He looked down a the pot ciggie with a certain amount of amusement in his pink eyes.

They were all so stupid. They had no idea the forces they were unleashing.

"With each turn of fate the circumstances come into place like tumblers in a lock, and will unleash our most horrifying potential." He murmured to himself.

"Yeah, Freshmen! Maybe this will teach you not to mess with us, ugh, us non-freshmen!" Randy finally got out as he hiccupped and Lilo helped Stan up from the ground, putting his jacket back on.

Stan turned around to Randy, eyes narrowed, speaking calmly. "Allow me to impress upon you the severe mistake you have made. For years my conduct has been largely benign. And yet, without provocation, you have severed our détente and forced me to unleash upon you the vengeful flames of a thousand suns. You shall curse your mothers for the day of your birth. For, go now, go, and begin your life of fear, knowing that when you least expect it, the looming sword of Damocles will crash down upon you, cleaving you in twain and as you gaze upon the smoking wreckage that was once your life, you will regret the day you crossed the WRONG KID!!!"

With that, he stormed off and the other children left with him. But not before he called back "DICK!" and Lilo stuck her tongue out at him.

Randy blinked, then managed to gurgle out "Oh, well…well, who shoved one up your ass, Staaan?!"

THWONK. Down he went, knocked out.

"Uuuh. To think, in thirty years, I could be YOU." Stan thought to himself, shaking his head as he turned back one more time to see his Dad's eyebrows being shaved.


…

…

…

…all of the children had gathered at the large barn over at Burrow Farm. Letting the kids in one at a time, Junior nodded at them all, smiling in a kind fashion and ushering them all in. He noticed Stan was approaching and saw the bruises, immediately rushing inside the barn to get Wendy Testaburger.

"Oh my GOD! STAN!" Wendy yelled, rushing to her boyfriend's side. "What happened to you?" She whispered sadly, holding him by his arms.

"…I'll be alright." He said finally, looking into her eyes. "I'm just glad to spend some time away from my house. And…I don't think I'll be coming back there either."

"Well you know, you are always welcome at my farm." Junior said kindly, nodding his head.

"EW, is that a HEAD?"

"Oh for Pete's sakes, it's stone dead, don't freak out, Bebe." Cartman's voice wafted through the air.

"Why do you even have a boar's head here in this barn?" Stitch asked as he and Angel walked inside of the large barn. There was beautiful white paint on the inside to contrast the sharp red, with blue windowpanes and a big steeple at the top.

"That would be my wife. She killed it when it was trying to…well…mount my…uh…" Junior nervously bit his lip, then grinned nervously. "It was kind of…something you had to see to believe." He admitted.

"He tried to pork our porkers is what happened." A feminine experiment with dark green fur and a light grey chest/stomach stated. She had black eyes with a tint of green at the bottom, a rather big nose, large, almost mouse-like ears and  she was not wearing any shirt. Only a pair of lightly-colored tie-dye pants. Not even shoes. Not that they would have fit on her taloned feet. Green smiled and waved a hand in the air. "So I barbequed him." She informed them Stitch and Angel. "That head's to remind me of what I'm willing to do to protect the animals AND workers here on our farm."

"If you're at the Burrow, you're family." Junior insisted. "Ooh, Green, could you pass around the lemonade?"

"On it." Green said, nodding as she went over to a nearby refrigerator. Meanwhile, Lilo walked to the front of the barn behind a podium Junior had set up.

"Hello everyone." She said, waving her hands in the air. "I know it's been a long, long time since we first began working here in South Park. It's been a long, long time that we've seen the fruits of our labor be taken advantage of. But it has to stop. It NEEDS to stop. We need to take a stand. Here…and now."

Coraline stepped up to the podium with her. "Lilo and I have been working on a plan to eject the adults from the town and make it ours. We're going to turn this place into our own shining light upon the hill, just like Jimmy would have wanted."

"But we can't do it alone. We need everyone's support on this. And we need to remember what Jimmy said. I have…here…part of what he wrote down in his papers. It states that, when we gather together for the first time after his death, we should read this aloud." Lilo cleared her throat.

"Heed this proclamation. This is to be passed on to all when I die…" Lilo went on. "Firstly, I've thought long and hard about who would take position over what when the Revolution comes…I have arranged it as such…

Lilo - Defense
Coraline - Interior
Wybie - Public Relations and Media
Cartman - Food and Drink
Gorgonzolla - Justice
Kyle - Finance
Wendy - Education
Stan- Labor
Edd - Foreign Affairs
Eddy - Trade and Industry
Dib – Agriculture.

I believe in all of you…remember, we must recognize, first and foremost, that all of us are united in one way: against adults. They take advantage of us and claim it is for our benefit. They look down upon us and belittle us. They do not think we can think as they do, that we can act as they do. This is a lie. Remember what I told you: Adults…are enemies."

"What about the experiments?" Cartman asked.

Several others spoke up. "He's right! A lot of them are "adults"."

"Can we trust them?"

Coraline raised a hand for them all to be quiet. Then Lilo continued reading. "I imagine now you wish to know what I think of Experimental Americans." She read from Jimmy's papers as Grey, sitting in the front, nervously bit his lip. "They too are underestimated by adults simply because they are not human. They are also looked cruelly upon due to "inhumanity", though their souls are often more human than many adults I've met. I ask that you treat them with kindness and respect…with common decency, above all. There is much we can gain from them and that they can gain from us. They too…are comrades."

Grey smiled happily. It felt…good. Hearing those words, it was like Jimmy was sitting right next to him, one hand on his, nodding firmly. "You're family too", he was saying, from beyond the grave.

"So what's the plan then?" Stan called out.

Coraline clapped her hands and Yog brought in a big poster. Unfurling it for everyone to see, Lilo slapped a pointer stick against it. "This is what we've got in store. But to get it all done in time…we need your help, Stitch. You and the rest of your fellow Experimental Americans need to pitch in."

Stitch looked Lilo over. He blinked a few times.

"I'm trusting you to come through for us. All of us." Lilo insisted, nodding firmly.

"…you want my help…you've got it." Stitch decided, nodding back at her. "Mine and my ohana's."

A few minutes later everyone was dismissed and they all headed out of the barn. Grey smiled down at Stan. "It's cute how protective your girlfriend is of you."

Stan blushed as Wendy smiled at him. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you know how it is." He told Grey.

"I did, yeah." Grey mumbled, kicking some dirt off the ground slightly as he folded his arms and looked away.

"Oh, right, your girlfriend kicked the bucket. How'd she die? If, you, uh…don't mind me asking?" Stan wanted to know.

"Drowned. She took one step into a moat, sank like a stone and didn't float." Grey remarked.

"I thought he told me she was crushed by a falling redwood?" Kyle thought to himself as he overheard the conversation.

"I don't like talking about Ewa Lani, it gets…painful…"

"Hey, sometime, stop by my bar." Green spoke up, patting him on the back from behind. "Tomorrow night's going to be Karaoke night. That's when Eva does her thang."

"Her thing?"

"Her thang." Stitch clarified.

"It's quite a thang indeed." Angel agreed.

"She from the South?" Grey asked, noticing the way they were pronouncing the word.

"We THINK she is. She just showed up in town. Like you!" Green laughed. "Anyhow, she's also a sex therapist in her spare time, so if you want some help in getting cheered up…" She shrugged.

"…Eva, huh?" Grey wondered, rubbing his chin as he headed back to his home.