Revenge of the Fangirls

This is the story of BASE in the Revenge of the FanGirls.

Part 1 - The Plan for Revenge
Darkness.

The igloo was shrouded in it. Not even the light of the crescent moon could pierce the window that so many shadowy figures huddled under. The whole place would have been smothered in darkness if not for the tiny flickering candle that lit up a single penguin's face, dancing across the icy crown that rested on her head.

"Now girls…" The black penguin spoke in a high, shrill voice, her face bathed in shadow, "We are gathered here tonight for a very important reason…"

"Why do you say 'girls?' Does that make me a girl? I'm not a girl!" Came a high-pitched whining from the back of the small crowd.

"Shut up!" Someone hissed, "Nobody asked you to be here! Leave now, if you plan on complaining more!" Nobody moved. Nobody wanted to leave. This meeting was too important to miss out on.

"Please continue." Someone said shyly to the penguin who had called the meeting.

"Thank you." The first penguin said with a glare, the fire blazing in her eyes. "Now…does everyone know why we're here?"

A couple beaks curled into sneers. Others remained stern and serious.

"…Why?" Someone dared to ask.

"Fool!" The penguin bellowed, standing up suddenly, nearly dropping the little flame in doing so. "You asked!" The penguin shouted, rolling backwards to avoid the penguin with the candle. "Careful!" Someone warned in a hushed voice. The crowned penguin immediately calmed and sat back down.

"Sis…" A light blue penguin muttered, reaching out with a tentative flipper, "Lelee…"

"I suppose you might as well know why you have been called here." Lelee, the penguin holding the candle, said, ignoring her sister. "It's for one simple reason: Revenge."

The small group was sent into a flurry of excited muttering and murmuring.

"Silence!" Lelee bellowed. Instantly, the crowd quieted, all eyes glued on the ice-crowned penguin. She reveled in their attention, keeping them in suspense as she casually traced patterns around the candle with her flipper. "Yes, it's so simple…" She murmured softly, slowly, nearly caressing the fire as she gazed into its depths. "Revenge. What a fun little thing it is. Has anyone ever told you how easy it is to take revenge? As simple as destroying this weak little flame." With a sudden movement, she snuffed the candle out. The darkness became deeper than ever. Deep darkness. There was no other way to describe it. Then, as if nothing else existed in the world, Lelee's voice filled the darkness, vibrating throughout the igloo, filling the dark world in which they dwelled.

"I'm assuming you're all familiar with a fellow that goes by the name of BASE…"

"He's mine!" "No, he's mine!" "He obviously loves me more, so he's mine!" "No, he loves me more! So…let…go!"

BASE nearly had the breath knocked out of him as a pink penguin pulled on his arm with sudden force, her chest heaving, her eyes wild. But a sky blue penguin held fast onto his other arm, absolutely refusing to let go. His skin felt like it was being stretched across his chest, towards the arms that were close to being ripped off.

"Ladies, ladies!" He gasped, but his desperate plea went unheard, lost amidst their frantic squealing of who had ownership of this poor player penguin.

"Hey!" Came a new voice, "What are you two doing? Let that poor penguin go!" A bright lime green penguin suddenly shoved between them and the girls let go in surprise. "Do you want me to report you?" Both opened their beaks to argue, but no sound came out, as the two searched for words.

"Thanks…" BASE sighed, flexing his sore arms.

The green girl's eyes widened. "Boy or girl?" She asked randomly.

BASE frowned, uncertainly. "Err…boy."

With a sudden shriek, the lime green penguin launched herself forward as if to latch onto BASE. He reeled backwards, shocked. The two other girls sprang into action a second later, barreling into the lime newcomer and wrestling her to the ground. The three then proceeded to start a major catfight. BASE scrambled for cover. Once he was on his feet, he sprinted away from the center of the plaza, heading for the bushes at the edge of the forest.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" The lime penguin hissed. All three clamored after him, flailing at him with frantic flippers. The pink girl launched herself forward with amazing speed and tackled BASE to the ground. The other two latched on and the tug-of-war game started all over.

"The B! There are you, I've been looking all over for you!" The three girls froze and looked up as a pink penguin with pink hair and a swimsuit came waddling over. "Honey, I thought we were going for a date at the pizza parlor?"

BASE forced a weak smile from his spot on the ground. "Oh yes, dear. I completely forgot." The three girls let out collective gasps and backed away. The pink penguin glared at the newcomer, then turned around and ran. The green one followed. "Sorry!" The sky blue penguin muttered before taking off in the other direction. BASE let out a long sigh of relief. Laughter burst out from all around him.

"Awesome!" A penguin wearing a snow cap and dojo belt shouted.

"Oh man, that was some show!" The only male penguin of the group exclaimed, a smile stretched wide across his brown face.

"I haven't seen anything that funny in forever!" One giggled, her brown hair and pink dress trembling as she tried not to laugh too hard.

"Do it again, do it again!" Another penguin, a one wearing a ninja mask and other clothing articles, joked, "We wanna see you suffer some more!"

"I couldn't have let you go on like that." The all-pink penguin who had stepped in told him.

"Are you okay?" A simple purple penguin asked, looking concerned.

BASE grimaced in pain as he rubbed his arms. "Well, despite that my flippers feel like they've been stretched a couple feet, I think I'll live to see another day."

Everyone shared another laugh again. BASE grinned. Although he had only met this small group a day or two ago, they were already pretty good friends. All of them had heard and read about BASE's great (and evil) feats of being a player. They went on to seek him out, and when BASE met them, he could scarcely believe that penguins with more than half a brain existed! So when they asked BASE if they could see him in live action, of course he couldn't say no. As the six of them chattered excitedly about what had just happened, BASE looked at each of them in turn, trying to remember exactly who they were. He had never been very good with names, but he was learning.

Let's see...Bublegirl is the one that helped me out and Cheesecake is the one with the snow cap. I knew them already. And Metalyoshi is easy to remember because he's the only guy. He looked at the other three. Umm…right! The weird girl with the ninja mask is Ack and the one in the dress is Butterfly! She's an Aunt Arctic fangirl. And the last one… He turned his gaze to the purple penguin. The quiet one…Hope? No, Faith! He grinned, feeling proud at his miniscule accomplishment of remembering everyone's name.

"Oi, BASE? Were you listening?" Someone asked, snapping him back to reality.

"Oh, sorry! Say that again?" BASE said, smiling sheepishly.

"We want to see you rob the pizza parlor next!" Cheesecake said, an evil gleam in her eyes.

BASE hesitated, looking at his surroundings. Dusk would fall soon and the club was emptying as penguins went back to their igloos to go to bed. Even he felt a little worn out by the day's adventure. "Sorry guys," He said, standing up and stretching. "Let's save that for tomorrow. I'm pretty tired…besides, I think these are gonna need some surgery." He flexed his arms, and then winced, jokingly.

"Okay." Bublegirl said, trying not to look too disappointed. "What time do you wanna meet up tomorrow?"

"Umm…how about the coffee shop at noon? We'll head to the pizza parlor from there. I bet it'll be really crowded." He grinned, trying to imagine what the outcome of that trick would be like.

"Okay, it's a deal!" Ack shouted, jumping up and down. "Yes! I can't wait!" Then she raced off and disappeared from sight in less than a second flat.

"Goodbye to you too." Faith said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Oh well, I'd better get going too. There's a book at home with my name on it. See you tomorrow." She smiled and waddled off in the other direction.

"See you BASE!" Cheesecake shouted over her shoulder, as she grabbed her best friend Bublegirl by the flipper, "Come on, Bublegirl, I'll play you at Card Jitsu!" "Haha, you know I'm gonna win!" "No way!" Their voices faded away as they disappeared over a snow bank.

Butterfly stood there, looking spaced out. "Umm…bye…" She started walking off in one direction, but then froze and looked back the other way. "Wait…I live that way! Okay, now bye!" She started walking the other way but BASE stopped her in her tracks.

"No, you live that way." He said, turning her in the right direction with a flipper. "Remember?" He gave her a cuff on the head. "You're directionally-challenged, just like my friend Rhutter."

She beamed. "I'd like to meet him too, sometime!" She left for home, looking a little bit more confident now. Only Metalyoshi remained.

"…You sure you don't wanna cause a little bit more trouble tonight?" He asked, looking downcast. BASE nodded. "Yeah. But y'know we're gonna be doing this again tomorrow! And this time you guys can be in on it too instead of standing on the sidelines."

Metalyoshi immediately brightened up. "Awesome! Guess I'll be seeing you then!" With that, he turned and took his own path towards home. BASE let out a tired sigh. Everyone was really nice, but they didn't really seem to be too friendly towards each other when they weren't in his onlooker group, with the exception of Bublegirl and Cheesecake. Lost deep in thought, he headed on back to the igloo neighborhood, just as night finally fell.

"Darn it, where did I put that stupid key?" BASE growled, fumbling around in the snow, the moon blazing high overhead. Unfortunately for him, BASE wasn't a member penguin, and absolutely refused to pay the overlords of Club Penguin for fine clothes and housing, knowing full well that his money would be spent on things for Rockhopper and such. Instead, he preferred to live life the hard way in what was more like the slums of Club Penguin…where all the non-member penguins lived out their lives in cold, empty little igloos. Most of his neighbors were idiots and every night was an icy, dreamless sleep for him.

But nothing mattered, as long as he had his pride.

Yes, nothing matters as long as I have my pride! BASE thought angrily, as his flippers dug through the snow, Then why the heck is my pride letting me crawl around on the ground like a crab?

With a defeated moan, he forced himself up onto his feet, thinking that maybe he could break down the door. When he tried the doorknob, it popped right open. Oh…I hope no one saw that. He thought to himself, stepping through the door. It was then he saw Flipengy, his red puffle. "Hey, Flip, have you seen my k…" He trailed off, for something was wrong.

Flipengy was pressed up against the far side of the igloo, his red fur bristling, his little puffle teeth bared at something in the igloo. A hiss escaped his lips as the door swung shut behind his penguin owner. BASE, frozen, thought frantically, I'm not the one who shut the door! He turned, his eyes wide with pure terror, as they locked with another black penguin's own beady pair.

"Hey Hip." The penguin greeted in a soft, nasally voice, her hand resting on the doorknob. She reached forward with his key and locked it behind her.

BASE took a deep breath. "Hey, Lelee."

Lelee moved forward, lifting her head up towards his menacingly. Although she was much shorter in size, she made the poor playa shrink with fear. "Why did you take me off your buddy list?" She asked in a cruel calculating voice.

"You're just discovering this now?" BASE exclaimed, trying to keep his voice from shaking, for he knew what this psycho was capable of. "I took you off a long time ago. I haven't seen you in ages! So I-!"

"You thought I wouldn't care? Or you just took it as the opportunity to get rid of me?" Lelee shrieked suddenly, raising her fists.

"Sorry, sorry!" BASE said, shielding himself with his flippers. "Sheesh, you know it's not like the buddy list matters! You still managed to find me and get into my house. I want my key back, by the way."

Lelee looked down at the key in her hand, her ice crown casting a shadow on her face. "You won't need it." She whispered, and tucked it away into her imaginary penguin pocket.

"What?" He said in surprise, "Look, I don't have time for this. Let me lead you to the door." But in one swift movement, Lelee flew at BASE and stabbed him in the chest with something she had pulled from her pocket. There was a loud zapping sound and the poor Santa penguin collapsed in a heap at her feet, writhing in pain. She stood there, holding a little device which spurted jolts of electricity.

"A—taser?" BASE gasped between the bursts of pain which ran through his body, "Why-?"

"Oh dear, I guess that shock wasn't good enough for you. Let me turn up the power." She turned a little knob on the device. With an evil smirk, she bent down; smirking into BASE's scared face. "Sleep tight B." She said.

"It's BA--!" BASE began to correct her, but with a final loud zap, everything went dark.

Part 2 - Something Amiss
"Here's your coffee, ma'am. Anything else?"

Faith smiled as she accepted the steaming mug of coffee from the waitress. "Yes…you wouldn't have anything to read, would you?" She asked. The waitress nodded and handed her a newspaper, then went back to stand at the counter and brew more coffee. Faith threw open the newspaper, her eyes feverishly scanning the pages for anything to read. With her head buried into the black and white pages, she hardly noticed a familiar face enter the coffee shop.

It wasn't until a dark blue flipper appeared at the corner of the newspaper and a voice said, "See that Aunt Arctic column? I sent that in."

Faith looked up in surprise. "Oh! You were with BASE the other day! I'm sorry…?"

"Butterfly." Butterfly replied, shaking Faith's hand. She smoothed her pink polka-dotted dress. "Sorry, we weren't properly introduced."

"I'm Faith." Faith said, feeling a little awkward and shy. "Um…so you like Aunt Arctic?"

"Yes!" Butterfly said, growing a little bit excited. "I write to her every week and it's really awesome when she replies to my letters! You should try it sometime."

"Sounds fun." Faith said quietly. "Um…so where is everyone else?"

"You mean they're not here yet?" Butterfly said, suddenly looking more aware of her surroundings. "Oh you're right…wow, I can't believe I beat them all here. I'm supposed to be the directionally challenged one! One time, I was headed for the pizza parlor for lunch and I must have taken a wrong turn or something because I ended up at the iceberg! I mean, how weird can it get?"

Faith stared at the brown-haired penguin, eyes wide. "You struck me as pretty quiet yesterday, but you're awfully talkative." She noted.

Butterfly turned red. "Sorry… I can talk a mile a minute when I'm in the right mood."

Suddenly the door swung open, and in came Ack. She looked around excitedly, spotted the two penguins on the couch, and bounced over. "Hey!" She greeted enthusiastically, and then pointed to Butterfly, "Nice ninja mask! Mine's cooler." She smirked playfully.

"How about a game of Card Jitsu to prove you wrong?" Butterfly shot back, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.

"We're supposed to be waiting for BASE…" Faith reminded them, a little bit annoyed with all the noise, as she was trying to read. Just as she said that, two more penguins came strolling in, Bublegirl and Cheesecake. The last penguin followed right after. It was Metalyoshi. He was surrounded by a small group of friends. Metalyoshi paused by the couch while his pack of penguin buddies went racing up the stairs calling, "Come on man! Whoever wins in our mancala tournament gets to take the new video game we bought home with them!"

"You guys go on ahead. I'll catch you later." Metalyoshi called as the last of them disappeared up the steps. He turned to the five girls.

"Nerd." Ack giggled.

"Video games aren't nerdy." Metalyoshi growled. Cheesecake murmured agreement, but Metalyoshi ignored her, saying, "Anyways, where's BASE? I've got stuff to do." He eyed the other five penguins, looking mistrusting of them. They all exchanged glances.

"Nobody asked you to be here." Ack pointed out truthfully.

Metalyoshi ignored her, running his flippers nervously through his short, brown hair. He sat down on the couch across from them. Ack flopped down next to him with an exaggerated sigh. They sat around quietly, for at least five or ten minutes. Even Bublegirl and Cheesecake could find nothing to say, as the silence was extremely awkward and they didn't want to be the only ones conversing. Faith was absorbed in the newspaper, while Metalyoshi kept casting everyone suspicious glances as if one of them was hiding BASE in their pocket. Wow… Cheesecake thought to herself, none of these penguins seem too eager to make friends, do they?

"What time did BASE say he would be here?" Butterfly's voice interrupted Cheesecake's thoughts.

"Noon." Faith murmured, closing the newspaper, having finally read it all.

"Well it's 12:30." Butterfly pointed out, "He's really late."

"Or he forgot about us." Ack said, frowning.

"What!" Metalyoshi exclaimed, "No way! I was so looking forward to this…"

"Oh come on, I'm sure he didn't." Bublegirl said, although she looked a tad doubtful herself. "BASE isn't that scatterbrained."

"But what reason would he have for being late?" Ack growled, "It's not like he has much of a life. It's not like any of us have much of a life." With that, she stood up and started waddling away. "I'm going to go waste my time somewhere else. Have fun waiting around the rest of your life."

"I don't think she likes BASE very much." Cheesecake noted as she left the coffee shop.

"Actually, I think she likes him a lot." Faith said quietly, "Otherwise she wouldn't have been so upset."

"You're very intuitive, aren't you?" Metalyoshi noted.

Faith smiled. "Well, I'll be going too." She stood up with a sigh. "It was nice talking to you, Butterfly. I hope we run into each other another time. And maybe if we're lucky, we'll get to see BASE in action again someday." With that, she left.

Bublegirl got up after that. "I'm going shopping." She declared, "Come on, Cheesecake."

Cheesecake looked away. "Umm, I'm going to wait for BASE some more if you don't mind." Bublegirl shrugged and exited, heading across town to the gift shop. A long silence followed. "Aren't you going to leave too?" Cheesecake asked, looking at Metalyoshi. He stared at his feet.

"Your friends are up there waiting for you." Butterfly pointed out.

"I know." Metalyoshi muttered, "But I actually…uh…had more fun with you guys yesterday. Alls my friends ever wanna do is play video games. I'm not saying that's bad it's just…I need to get out more. And they have bad taste in games anyways."

"Hmm…maybe I can introduce you to some of my favorite games sometime!" Cheesecake said happily.

Butterfly laughed. "Well, do you two want to go to BASE's igloo with me?"

"Huh?" The two looked at Butterfly in surprise.

"Maybe he just slept in. We could go pay him a visit and give him a wakeup call. And if he's not there, well we'll just have to get on with our lives."

"BASE? BASE!, you home?" Cheesecake called from outside the tiny little igloo. "Maybe this is the wrong address. I've only ever been to his house once or twice."

"Try knocking." Metalyoshi snorted. He reached forward and pounded on the door with a flipper. It swung open with an ominous creak. The three penguins stared inside the dark igloo, eyes wide. "…It was already open." Metalyoshi said for no reason.

"No! You think?" Cheesecake said sarcastically. They walked inside and were greeted with a loud hiss.

"Whoa!" Butterfly screamed, "It's a puffle! I hate puffles!" She backed up towards the wall, shielding her body with her flippers.

"It's Flipengy." Cheesecake said, giving Butterfly a questioning look. "What's wrong with him?"

Flip was huddled up against the far wall, his fur fluffed out aggressively, his eyes wide with fear. He curled his lips back and let out another warning hiss. The two penguins had never seen a black puffle act this way, much less a red one, which was a naturally friendly kind of puffle. It was then that they noticed the snow of the igloo. Instead of being smooth and frozen like all igloo floors, it seemed as if there had been a small struggle. Metalyoshi turned to look at Cheesecake and Butterfly, who was still pressed up against the wall and eyeing the puffle with dislike.

"I think something happened to BASE."

"—and then I set the power up a little higher and I knocked him out for good. He slept like a rock during the whole time I dragged him back to Kitty's igloo. No one saw us either. Oh it was so, so simple, sis!"

Fugemonkeys frowned. "Yeah, Lelee, you already established that, but what are we going to do now that we have him? We spent that whole meeting talking about capturing him. Now we need to do the part where we actually take revenge! We need to decide what to do with him."

"Shut up Fugemonkeys!" Lelee snapped, "You just don't get it do you? We need to decide what to do with him!" Fugemonkeys rolled her eyes. "But first…" Lelee smiled evilly, "I think it's time we held another meeting…"

Part 3 - Beaten by Girls
BASE groaned. He felt as if he had been sleeping for hours on end, wading through a heavy fog of darkness. Why am I so tired? He thought to himself, yawning. He went to stretch his arms and legs, but suddenly found that he couldn't. They were tied up. "Great…" He murmured groggily, "Captured by fangirls again. Rhutter won't be too happy with me. That's the second time this week."

"Oh!" He heard a short intake of breath from somewhere nearby. He peered up, blearily trying to make out his surroundings. After blinking a couple times he could see a purple penguin standing over him, staring at him. Ah. A fangirl. Maybe he could flirt his way out before their leader returned to make a shrine out of him.

"Hey there." He said, trying to give her his best smile, although he was so tired he probably looked like he was on drugs. "Wanna loosen these ropes for me? They're cutting into my muscle…heck, maybe if you untie me, we could go grab a pizza…" The penguin suddenly lunged forward and smacked him across the face. He winced in pain and confusion.

"Nice try BASE!" The girl said, frantic puffs of laughter breaking from her beak. "But I don't feel that way about you anymore! You're in big trouble now. Lelee! LELEE! He's awake!" The purple penguin took off, running for the door.

BASE's eyes flew wide open. Lelee! It all came rushing back to him. He hadn't been captured by fangirls…he had been captured by…well, uh, girls that used to be fangirls! But now they hated him! And that purple girl had been Parrot, a sucker he had gone on a short date with, but broke it off because she had treated him like a dog.

As Parrot's shouts faded and the realization that Lelee was coming dawned on him, he began to push against his bonds. The rope dug into his skin, making red cuts appear on his feet and flippers. His cheek throbbed with pain. "Darn it!" He shouted, squirming along the ground frantically, trying to sit up, to break free, to get away from this terrifying situation somehow.

He froze as the patter of many penguin feet announced the arrival of his captors. He forced himself to look up at the small army of girls that Lelee had obtained to do her bidding. "No way…" He whispered. There were a lot more than he had expected. Every face was recognizable.

Lelee, Fugemonkeys, Pinkwie, Borago, Alaska, Suiteb, Penguin, even Urty! And there were so many more. It was too much! With a surge of sudden adrenaline, BASE was able to push himself into a sitting position. Surprisingly, he felt suddenly calm. "Hello ladies."

"And me!" Urty cried out angrily.

"When I said 'ladies' I meant all of you." BASE said coldly, narrowing his eyes. "So… anything I can do for you?"

Someone in the back of the crowd snickered, "He thinks he's so cool."

"You know why you're here BASE." Lelee said, folding her flippers and beginning to pace back and forth in front of him. "You've hurt us all in some way. You've ruined our lives. And so, we want revenge. It's that simple."

"Ruined your lives?" BASE shouted in disbelief, "No I haven't! You guys are so stupid and oversensitive…you mean to say you couldn't continue to live normally after a harmless prank played on you by some immature penguin? And it's BASE, by the way."

"You broke my heart!" Pink Lumina wailed dramatically, "You shattered it into a hundred pieces!"

"If your heart really was broken, you wouldn't be alive!" BASE said testily. "Can I go now?"

"Oh shut up BASE! You know you're not going anywhere. Not until we decide what to do with you!" Suiteb yelled at him. BASE's heart was pounding. He was fresh outta clever comebacks. This was new.

"So…anyone have any suggestions?" Lelee asked, halting in the middle of her pacing to turn to her audience. "Sis?"

Fugemonkeys burst into tears. "Torture him! Like he tortured my heart and soul!" She clutched at her chest dramatically. BASE rolled his eyes.

"Make him obey us!" Parrot shouted. "Yes!" Suiteb agreed.

"KILL HIM!" Pinkwie screeched manically.

"Turn him good!" Buffy suggested.

"Hand him over to Rockhopper!" Urty demanded.

"No, hand him over to Herbert P Bear!"

"No, Gary the Gadget Guy!"

"The police!"

"Sensei!"

"My mom!"

"On my planet, we would make him juggle pink puffles while doing an interpretive dance in a sparkly outfit at a 5th grade talent show!"

Everyone stopped arguing and the room fell silent. All of the penguins turned to stare at Cute Kitty. She looked back with wide eyes and puffed up indignantly. "My suggestion is a lot better than all of yours!" She said defensively.

"I agree." BASE added, "It sounds the most painless. Minus the sparkly outfit thing."

"I think…we should decide on this later." Lelee said slowly. "We need to talk without this little rat listening in. But for now…" She strode forward. BASE stared up at her curiously. A cruel smile formed on her lips. Then she brought her large foot smashing into the player's side. He gave a great gasp and fell onto his stomach. With shrieks of delight, every other penguin surged forward and started delivering a mass amount of punches and kicks to the poor player. Pinkwie even leaped forward and bit him on the shoulder like some maniacal vampire.

He cowered on the floor, shielding his face from their attacks. Everyone was having a great time taking their much-needed revenge when a single yellow penguin in beach clothes came bursting from their ranks, barreling into those that were closest to BASE.

"Hey!" Pinkwie shrieked angrily.

"Stay away from him, HE'S MINE!"

Everyone gasped in outrage and shock as Borago threw herself protectively over BASE's body. She glared defiantly at the girls surrounding her, as if daring them to move her from her position. BASE raised his head weakly and smiled ever so slightly at the show Borago was putting on.

Without warning, Pink Lumina came shooting out of nowhere, screaming, "Traitor!" at the top of her lungs. She tackled Borago to the floor and started punching her. The rest of the girls started shrieking and surged forward to try and pull Pink Lumina off of Borago. Blood had started flying from Borago's beak. Finally, Urty stepped forward and forced Pink Lumina away from her victim. Pink looked unusually pleased, her eyes shining with excitement. Borago sat up, wiping at the blood on her face with a bruised flipper.

"Borago. Get out." Lelee whispered, her voice filled with a quiet rage. "Get out and don't ever come back unless you want to have the rest of your body bleeding, you traitor."

Without another word, Borago scrambled to her feet and fled from the igloo. A long silence followed her departure. Lelee nodded to Fugemonkeys, her hands balled into fists, shaking with rage.

"Let's go." Fugemonkeys said quickly to the others, "Lizette, you're on guard duty."

Everyone filed out, casting last glances at the battered body of BASE. He watched them go, thankful that Borago had saved him before they had harmed his face. His body was pretty bruised and a small wound on his chest was staining his white feathers red. And still, the ropes were cutting his skin. He buried his face into the snow, letting the cold numb him.

"Awesome…" He thought sarcastically.