Rub-a-dub-dub (conc)

into the darkness. She couldn't help but grin at Ragnar's...ahem..."Helping hand". The light filtered in from various air ducts, so she was not completely in the dark. She could see as she slid down further into the downwards slanting airduct, SunAeryn's feet and below that a small ball of fur that must be the kitten. She didn't see the ducky.

She walked herself down one hand or foot at a time. There was a shaft off to her left she might be able to swing herself down into, then back out of feet first. She was limber enough. But oh, these tight spaces! *Try to be calm, relax...* she took deep slow breaths, trying not to panic, she made it to the offset shaft and wiggling, with some effort swung herself into it.

Laying on her back, she pulled her feet in, and was about to push herself back out and down when she noticed what looked like footprints. Little tiny lizard footprints, on the metal wall next to her head. *Way too small for Thor* she thought, and decided to investigate quickly.

Pushing herself backwards, she slid along the vent shaft. It wasn't too far before her head poked out into the library. She rolled over onto her stomach and looked around. Nothing but books, books, books...and was that a lizard tail dangling off the shelf over there?

*Louie...squeeking...He must have the duck* she thought. She saw the door was shut, the windows were closed, and she was laying in the only air vent. She reached out and pulled some books towards her quietly. Pulling them into the air vent as she slid backwards, she blocked up the vent hole. *Hopefully* she thought *He's trapped. Now to get the kitten, get back to Rag, and get that duck!* she wiggled backwards furiously, feeling the vent open up behind her, she pushed her self out of the vent, hanging on until she got into position, then let go, sliding downwards.

"HEY!" she heard SunAeryn yell, and looked over, trying to at least right herself. Then she realized where she was. That big rubber bouncing room. Sun was off to the side, trying to run after the kitten. In a room with inflated rubber walls and floor, running wasn't going to happen. Sun bounced crazily around, mostly on her feet. The kitten was freaking. She had all four paws outstretched, claws extended, and was trying to stop bouncing wildly across the room. She wanted to latch onto something!!!

"I think I know." 6th grinned. "You go up and go in the library. Don't let any one in. and be very quiet. Louie's in there, and I heard squeeking. I'll go get Ragnar, and get rid of the furball." SunAeryn, smiling, took off for the library, and 6th ran as fast as she could...back down to the underground lakes???

"Aw geez Ragnar, just go on already!" 6th said pushing him down the hall. She giggled, walking behind him. She goosed him, then darted to the side as he yelped. Laughing, she ran up the hall, turning around every few seconds to make sure he was following her.

*Not my Duckie* thinks the artickitten as it stares at the duck. *Smell's wrong*. The kitten sits down, bats the rubber duck with her right front paw a couple of times and then notices the open door. She remembers hearing what the big mean one and the little one that pulled her tail said as she was brought into this room.

Meanwhile in 6th's room, Thor is still scrambling about, getting itself a little freaked out trying to find a way out. The dogs have gone completely nuts trying to cope with the little T-Rex's antics and have started running around and chasing each other. In the mass confusion one of the animals bangs into the main door and pops it open.

The commotion of nine large dogs and a basenji following Thor up and down the corridors of the Farscape Mansion was a sight to behold. 'Scapers ducked out of the way or ran for cover as the strange (and not completely unusual) procession dashed past. Where was Sixth_Sense_Dreamer and why couldn't she control her pets...

The artickitten had skittered from Jila's room to the library. She crouched down the hallway from the room's doorway, trying to figure out how to sneak past a vigilant SunAeryn. She watched SunAeryn through narrowed kitten eyes. She just HAD to get the duckie back...

Sixth's dogs crossed the scent trail of the little kitten. Their aimless woofing as they ran about the Mansion turned to the cry of hounds on a scent. Making a sharp right and heading up a stairway they rounded a corner and caught sight of the kitten's waving white tail. With a howl, the dog pack sped up.

Inside the library, Sixth was just about to grab the napping lizard when pandemonium staggered through the doorway in the form of SunAeryn, trying to grab hold of a panicked screeching kitten while being mobbed by large dogs barking wildly. Louie was instantly awake and, grabbing the duckie in his mouth, skittered off across the ceiling and out the library door. Sixth and Ragnar wanted to chase after him but first they had to save Sun and the kitten from all the dogs. By the time they had finished with that, Louie was long gone...

So 6th opened the door, barking out "HEEL!" to the dogs, and they all formed a group and trooped down the hall, 6th in front, SunAeryn in the rear. Ragnar fought an urge to obey 6th's shouted command, and went off down the hall alone. Those commands were powerful!

Louie scampered along the ceiling, duck in his mouth. He knew the dogs weren't behind him, but he could smell that dratted T-rex in persuit. He stayed on the ceiling. He didn't notice two gleaming kitten eyes watching him from the vents. He headed for the kitchen.

DrumH and Viridian pulled up chairs, got plates, and dug in. Spyral was munching on Corn Pops, alternating between a bowl of it, and just reaching into the box for a handful. Mouse had a bagel slathered with cream cheese, and was sipping coffee. Chryse was spreading butter on her toast, and was reaching for one of the huge jars of homemade jam 6th had brought over from her grandmother's house. There were so many different kinds, that her hand was hesitating, trying to decide which flavor of jam to try. Kaybe was done, leaning back in her chair, slurping quietly on a huge mug of cocoa. Ghost was flitting back and forth, starting to clear plates off the table. Rae stood at the counter, stirring a huge bowl of doughnut batter.

Kitten went flying out of the duct, bouncing off of Rae's head. Horribly startled, Rae threw the bowl of doughnut batter into the air. The kitten leapt onto the table, into the butter. The bowl of batter landed upsidedown on Drum's head.

Spyral looked up, wiping corn Pops and milk out of his eyes in time to see coffee and cocoa flying towards him. He yelped, pushing himself backwards away from the table, colliding with ghost who had just gone behind him. She wasn't solid enough to carry plates and cups, so a big stack of them floated before her. Spyral crashed into those. Ghost lost her concentration and bowls, plates, cups, and silverware rained down on Spyral. He tried to catch them, and did very well, Tom and Jerry style, until that last cup. *It's always the last one* he thought, dropping everything, which fell to the floor in a huge crash.

Louie had darted down the wall and made a flying leap to the table. He miscalculated, and landed into one of the jars of marmalade. Chryse was startled as a lizard head poked out of the jam she had been reaching for. *Lizard jam? Oh well, 6'TH's grandmother made this, after all*

Thor ran under the table, leapt onto a chair, and thudded down into the middle of the table. It was too much for the old table, and the legs collapsed. The kitten was thrown upwards and landed into Spyral's cereal bowl, where the duck still floated.

*DUCKY!!!* she meowed happily in triumph. Thor and Louie both heard the happy meow at the same time. They bolted for the kitten. The gang tried to catch them, but jam, butter eggs, and other breakfast had gone flying when the table collapsed, and they were all covered in jam and food, too slippery to get purchase on scaly reptiles.

The duck bounced off of the buttons on the blender on the counter. Someone had made a friut smoothie and not put the lid on when they were done. The duck bounced off the "Frappe'" button and fruit smoothie shot out of the blender in all directions, splattering the walls, ceiling, floor, and already breakfast covered gang. Louie bounded for the duck, trying to guess where it might land when it stopped bouncing. He was looking up and not where he was going, and so slid across the floor into a jar of blackberry jam.

Rae, fighting against the surge of Friut smoothie managed to turn the blender off. She turned around as looked across the room at the rest of the gang. There was silence for a moment. Jam, eggs, bacon, toast, fruit smoothie, orange juice, butter dripped from the ceiling, the walls, covered the floor, and not one of the gang had been untouched.

"Hey!" he yelled, seeing Mr. Ducky in Thor's mouth. "Come back here you little--" he didn't finish, for Louie scampered up Ragnar's back and took a flying leap off of his head. Ragnar reached up too late to catch him and realized the lizard had trailed blackberry jam up his back and on his head.

Ragnar skidded around the corner and saw 6th kneeling on the floor in front of her open door, her head in her hands, sobbing. He didn't SEE anything dangerous, *but you can never be sure* he thought so he edged his way down the hall, looking carefully for hiding dragons.

There wasn't a thing left in one piece, every statue, every bonsai, every bit of the japanese decoration 6th had, were broken or shredded by Thor and the dogs. One of the bigger dogs had apparently jumped into the stream running through the foyer and water had flooded down the steps into a pile of uprooted bonsai. Mud was everywhere, as well as muddy dog and dino footprints, on her bed, her walls, her floor, and her clothes.

Sun muttered as she lead the dogs to a cave down in the grotto. She noticed a couple trying to escape and had to use her Aeryn Command Voice on them, "HEEL!" The dogs obeyed, they had no choice. Sun ACV is similar to Annisette's weirding voice, it can not be resisted. Sun looked around the grotto for a cave that could be used to house the dogs until 6thy had calmed down and hopefully restore her room to it's former state. Sun finally found a BIG enough cave and it had a good sturdy gate. She commanded the dogs into it. Found some big tubs for food and water. She locked the gate, much to the dismay of the dogs.

"Well, fella's this is what you get for listening to that dino! Maybe next time you won't. Sorry, but I don't think 6thy wants to see you all right now. I'll tell her where you are and that you are safe and can't mess up her room." Sun said as she sadly walked away from the whining doggies. They looked so sad.

Mean while KaraS was having no luck finding the Mansion Hall Monitor. And try as she might, she kept stepping in the mess in the kitchen. Little did she know that she was standing right under the doughnut batter that had stuck to the ceiling when Rae tossed the bowl, sure, some of the batter made it to Drum's head, but most of it stuck to the ceiling. Just as KaraS got the voicemail of the Hall Monitor, SPLAT! The batter landed on her head and slowly crept down covering her and the phone. "UGH! AAACCCHHHOOO!" was heard through out the Mansion. The gang stopped chasing the lizard, kitten and dino long enough to wonder who and what that noise was.

"6thy, Rag, I put the dogs in a big 'ol huge cave in the grotto. I found some tubs for food and water so they won't starve. They are no at all happy about it." Sun told the slighty sobbing 6thy. She had calmed down a little and Ragnar had this look of "dear caught in head lights" on his face. Sun just shook her head. Walked over to Rag, gently pushed him aside and put an arm around 6thy and lead her quietly into the room.

*What's this?* Thor thought to himself as he spied something brown and furry on the floor. He went over to examine the furry thing and descovered a brown teddy bear, dressed in a pirate costume. Thor sniffed the bear. It smelled familliar. That gave him an idea.

Thor carefully hid the rubber duckie behind a pile of shoes in the closet and left the room, teddy bear in mouth. He headed off to the other side of the Mansion, laying a false trail. When the heat was off and everyone had forgotten about the duckie, he could go back and retrieve it.

artickitten took advantage of the momentary distraction and made a flying leap for Thor growling as loudly as she could. The honey still in her coat, plus the butter on her fur and paws made a sticky mess of dino and bear <groan of despair from IQ>. Thor was so surprised he let go of the bear and Rae flew backwards into Drum, whose spell was interrupted, holding a wet, sticky bear. Drum, who could normally have caught Rae, was off balance and fell backward into the group. Everyone fell down in a mess of arms and legs AGAIN (including IQ, who is now just as covered in the mess as everyone else)! <more muttering as we untangle ourselves>

The fully po'ed kitten attacked Thor will her claws, demanding to know where the ducky was. Louie used his size changing ability to become a lizard the size of Thor (the high end limit of his power) and charged into the fight. The 3 animals circled each other watching for an opening against the other 2 opponents. (BTW, the animals can't smell a thing except all the mushed food on everyone)

Meanwhile, Jila had her hands full with her kids who had just noticed the kitten had disappeared. Her daughter was bawling her eyes out screaming "KITTY, I want the KITTY!!!" while her son had started to whine about being hungry and wanting French toast for breakfast. (sorry Jila)

Heaving a big sigh, Jila quieted her little girl with reassurances that they would find kitty on the way to the kitchen where she would make french toast for breakfast. The 2 kids calmed immediately (don't I wish it was THAT easy IRL!) and started toward the kitchen with their patient and saintly mother.

Jila quickly made a decision and called ALL the DRD's in the FS mansion to clean up the kitchen immediately. At once, DRD's started pouring into the kitchen and cleaned up everything in 10 microts. They even cleaned up KaraS and assisted her to the first clean chair and gave her a clean hanky. The DRD's left as quickly and as quietly as they came.

Jila, Kara and the kids, looked up from eating. Jila decided that what ever was going on. It had to stop! She asked Kara to watch over breakfast for a while and commanded her kids to obey Aunt Kara. Jila left the kitchen to investigate the wail.

SunAeryn, Ragnar , and 6th looked up and started running toward the sound. Recognizing Ghost's banshee wail had jolted all of them into temporarily forgetting the sad state of 6th's room and fully awakened all their warrior/soldier instincts as they prepared themselves for battle...

6th leapt for Thor at the same time as the kitten and Louie. Doing a nice tuck and roll, she scooped Thor up and rolled away. The kitten and the lizard collided with each other in midair, bonking heads. They crashed down to the ground in a thump. Dazed, they both shook their heads, looking around for the dinosaur.

Jila held up a hand for silence. "I have no idea what's going on, but you guys have been tearing up and down the halls causing all kinds of damage, not to mention lost sleep!" several mouths opened to speak, but Jila went on, "Now, the DRD's have been running on overdrive trying to clean up everything, but they need help. So hurry up and find that duck, because you all have a lot of cleaning to do! 6th, you get Thor talking. Drum, do SOMETHING with Louie. He's as bad as Thor. And somebody needs to find out who this kitten belongs to, otherwise, I'm taking it to the kids."

Ragnar smiled and looked at 6th, who grinned back. Thor had caused a lot of trouble to them both, and as much as they liked the dinosaur, it was time for some payback. Oh, they'd get him talking. It could take a while, but soon he'd be singing like a scaly canary.

...what to do with the sticky kitten Ragnar sits her on his shoulder "Stay" he commands with a stern look. Ragnar looks out of the corner of his eye just in time to see kitten reach out a paw in order to take a swipe at him "Don't you do it furball..." Ragnar growls in a low voice. Kitten looks Ragnar in the eye and sees that he means it...slowly she beings to lick her paw as if she was going to do that in the first place...while she shoots Ragnar a look that is innocent as can be. "You don't fool me for a second furball" Ragnar growls and gets a 'Meow' in response.

Kitten frowns then she realizes Thor is talking about Ragnar *Well if you don't tell...ummm...well...the Big fur face is going to make Dino burgers out of you! Yeah that's what he will do!* kitten growls back as she knods her head and gives Thor and evil like grin.

Kaybe starts giggling, and when the others look her way, she looks down at herself, and then at each of them, in turn. As they really take in each other's appearance, the giggles become contagous, and with the affects of no sleep, soon turn into hysterical laughter. the animals sensing the change, start relaxing, and looking for ways to ease away from the group.

"Oh no you don't!" says Beebo walking up to the group right in front of the path Thor was about to take. Glaring at Beebo for bringing the attention back to him, he eyed 6th again, seeing the anger still in her eyes. "What's going on here. You guys look like you could use the drd's to clean you up as well." After being filled in on the latest events, she says" Well, I say we put the animals in their cages, and leave them there until they tell us where the ducky is, or we find it ourselves, whichever comes first."

Before she found the bathroom, though, there was a loud crash and yelling which sounded like it was coming from the Kitchen. Coming from a rather large rambuncious family, Eloise was not surprised to find two young children in the Kitchen fighting over the last piece of French Toast. KaraS was a little flustered but seemed to be handling the situation well enough. So Eloise looked around to see what had made the crash.

She never found it but what she did find dumbfounded even her! Apparently someone had let Sixth's dogs out or they had somehow gotten out themselves. Whichever the case, Eloise found them dangling from a wet rope of old socks not far from Ragnar's longboat. The railing of the bridge that the socks were tied to was splintered and broken. Did the dogs jump or were they pushed?

Eloise didn't take time to answer that question. She set down her Pepsi can and hurried over to the bridge. She pulled as hard as she could. With nothing to brace against though, the going was slow and she didn't get far before she was out of breath. But if there is one thing the Lady is good at its holding on. Nobody would ever think the young girl HAD such a grip!

Was all that Sun could say when she saw the state of the cave gate she had put ALL of 6thy's dogs in. Sun shook her head as she started helping Eloise pull dogs out of the water and onto the bridge. The two she had already pulled out tried to get away, but between 6thy's voice and Sun's ACV the poor puppies were to scared to run.

"Man, 6thy, what do you feed these dogs? They are heavy!" Sun muttered as she noticed that Ragnar had sat down right next to the dogs when she and 6thy had commanded the dogs to sit and stay. "Ragnar, sweetie, a little help here?" Sun smiled at Ragnar(trying not to laugh at him, he just looked to silly sitting like a dog). 6thy was busy pulling out another dog when Ragnar finally snapped out of it and started helping. By the time they had all pulled out the dogs, the rest of the Scapers had made it down to the grotto.

"Now, it looks like those beasts, you call dogs, got to excited and knocked the gate down. It also looks like someone messed with it so it wouldn't be hard for them to knock it down." Sun was feeling like she hadn't wasted most of her youth on watching "Charlie's Angels"

"You all can handle this fine without me and I really think I should go rescue KaraS from the kids. She wasn't in a great state when I left the kitchen and I don't imagine she's doing better now. I'll look for the kitten on my way and send you word if I find her."

She walked through the hallways at a medium pace looking for signs and sounds of the kitten. It didn't surprise her not to have spotted the kitten since the little thing seemed to know every nook and cranny between the roof and the Ballroom.

nearby rubber duckie pool, Mouse slid in the water and got the breakfast nightmare out of her hair, ears, etc. While she was drying off, a thought can to her, and she scooped up a few duckies of different sizes and shapes and walked back to the group.

Felling much better, she declared,"I have the answer!" as she held up the duckies. "One for Thor, one for Louie, and one for Kitten! We can put catnip in the one, and fill the others with bat guano (ugh!) and whatever Thor likes. That way the pets will have their OWN toys, and Ragnar will have his duckie back!"

(Although Eloise just came into the whole fiasco, she knows a few Jedi tricks and that's how she knew about the runaway Mr Ducky. 6th's dogs were now firmly under control and the Scapers were ready for a short break. After all most of them had been up all night.)

*Umm, you don't by any chance know where the bathroom is, do you?* (Eloise looks the Scapers up and down.) *Looks like we could all use a shower! Maybe it will help to clear our minds a little and we can think of a plan. I mean come on they're just animals, right? We're smarter then a few animals, right?*

Meanwhile, as the Scapers shuffle off to find a washroom and get cleaned up, Thor and Mr Ducky are looking for a new hiding place. Thor was so anxious to play with his snerched toy that he failed to notice the two blue eyes watching him from a nearby heating duct.

Kitten, after losing those brutes 6th calls pets, had escaped into the ductwork of the FS house and was now calmly washing herself. She did have enough patience to wait for the right opportunity to get back *her* ducky. And she had a plan. ;>

translation: big dogs....penned up in a cave....job done....picked lock.....food stuffs ....on kitchen ceiling.... and floor....job done....next job? ....next job?....yellow ducky....in dino's mouth...get ducky....heard the big one say ....."get ducky!".....DRD will get Ducky......must be helpful....

[Click] " I have a FS family ANNOUNCMENT...I HAVE FOUND A RUBBER DUCKY ON THE LOOSE...If you would like to claim this critter pleez come to the tub or it will be mine by the right of finderz keeperz! I have no shame cuz Im insain...remember.Thank you." [click]

Mouse was walking up to the Rooftop Attic Gardens with her towel, her sunblock, and a good book. All the rushing around and mess that the gang had gotten into had left her yearning for some quiet time. As she set up her towel in the big lounge chair in the sun, she thought * Darn! Forgot my water* and went inside to get some water. As she passed SweetiePie's huge bird castle, she noticed he was asleep out near the bath. She quietly moved to the bar to get a bottle of water when she saw a flash of yellow in SweetiePie's birdbox. Moving a little closer, she saw what appeared to be a yellow rubber ducky hidden in the birdbox. She shimmied her hand through the castle bars (good thing she has small wrists) and managed to get the ducky out of the cage without waking SweetiePie. She tiptoed outside and examined the duck - yep, sure enough, there were Thor, Louie, Artickitten, and SweetiePie marks on it. *Time to return you to your rightful owner.* she thought. In the ducky's place she left one of the yellow ducky's that she had taken from the pool, but first she covered it with honey (from the bar) and rolled it in the sunflower seeds that were in Sweetie's cage.

Satisfied with her work, she quickly walked down to Ragnar's longboat, stopping on the way to collect the Scapers (minus their pets) who she thought would appreciate this reunion. At Sixthy's room, she knocked on the door. Sixthy opened the door and Mouse looked in the room in amazement. All the damage, all the water, all the paw and T-rex-prints were going and the room once again had been returned to it's former Asian beauty. "But how?" Mouse asked, to which Sixthy replied, "I decided to let the DRD's help and they did all the cleaning and repair. All the new stuff was in the attic or the basement, and they found that too. They are very handy to have around!" Mouse agreed and handed Sixthy a slightly sticky rubber ducky, of similar size and shape to Ragnar's. "For Thor," she clarified at Sixthy's look of disgust. This ducky had been sitting in a bag of gravy overnight and had dried. Mouse thought Thor would like it, and hopefully give up his hunt. Sixthy took it and disappeared, returning with a look of relief on her face. "He loved it - now let's get out of here, so I don't have to hear him chewing it up!"

Mouse and Sixthy collected Rae from her attic room, and stopped off at Drumheller's room. When he answered the knock, Mouse gave him a rubber ducky. "Is that Ragnar's?" he asked, and Louie gave a stir in his cage. "Yes, it is…" Mouse replied with a wink, and whispered, "it's one from the pool, and I thought if you rubbed it in the bat, uh, stuff, that Louie likes, maybe he'll think it's his and stay away from this one." Mouse showed Drumheller Ragnar's ducky in her pocket (no, she wasn't just glad to see him!) and he caught on, saying, "Wait a minute, and I'll let Louie 'find' this one." He disappeared for a minute, and returned looking happy. "He's as happy as a lizard in guano!"

The group moved on, collecting Spyral, Jila, and KaraS. Spyral gave a quick look back into his room just to make sure his "friend" was still safely under the bed, hidden from view. "Don't worry, I don't think anyone's going to steal that!" Mouse whispered to Spyral, who gave her a little jab in the side and whispered back "Quiet about the end-fray under the ed-bay!" Along the way, Mouse also dropped the last ducky from the pool in one of the heating vents. This one was filled with catnip, and Mouse felt certain that Artickitten would find it sooner rather than later. As Mouse was crouching down to see into the duct, she happened to look into a closet that was just a fraction open, and saw, a pirate? No, it was a pirate teddy bear. "Cute," she thought, "Is this anyone's?" she asked. "I thought I left that at the lost and found." Jila answered, puzzled. "Oh well, into the backpack you go little fellow, and we'll see if we can reunite you too!" Mouse said happily.

On their way down to the Longboat, they picked up Viridian, Chryse, SunAeryn, Beebo and Kaybe. Further along in the kitchen were Zeeactune, IQ, Lurkingghost, and Tahji. Hearing they were going to return the ducky to his rightful owner, they all came along for the big finale.

Meanwhile, Ragnar was relaxing on his longboat when he heard the unmistakable sound of lots of loud footsteps up his ladder onto the longboat. He wearily got to his feet, wondering what the calamity was "this time". As Rae, Mouse and Sixthy came in to view, he said gallantly (as is his nature), "Good Morning ladies. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Mouse laughed, and waited until the whole gang was aboard, then stepped forward, took out Ragnar's ducky and presented it to him. The gang clapped, whistled, and cheered as Ragnar inspected the ducky just to announce, "Yep, he's mine. Thanks." he said, from the heart.

"And while we're all here, does anyone recognize this?" Mouse pulls Beorn out of her backpack, and IQ almost fell over. "Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?" she asked. Finally, IQ summoned up his nerve, and stepped forward, to claim Beorn. The group smiled, and gave a collective "Ahhhhhhhhhh" and Mouse could have sworn she saw Beorn smile.