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Counter Earth Chronicles

Chapter 141: A World On The Brink of Collapse (All Of Our Tomorrows Were Yesterday Part Three)

Day 1055 (Evening, Lady Ursa's lair)

"Mistress are you sure you want to watch this?" I asked concerned.

My perfect person just nodded. Her face in a frozen daze like a warrior who knows they are fighting a battle they will not return from.

It has been a little more than a week since this vicious epidemic now known as the 'Great Sickness' has appeared throughout the empire taxing its healers. A brunette female with straight hair and fair skin said beginning the special report. _At first thought to be caused by a pathogen, virus or bacteria, researchers determined late last week the outbreak is mechanical. Microscopic indestructible, ugly insectoid, robots, have over taken the population and infected first class citizens in rapid numbers. _

Initially the infected exhibit common cold-like symptoms such as a sore throat, running nose, cough and congestion which then turns into a high grade fever, chills aching limbs and headache as the body tries to eradicate the foreign invaders. It is around that time that the mechanical agents start to cook their victims from inside out ultimately killing them. At this point twelve days since the initial exposure, the disease has proven fatal to about a third of 1st class citizens in the empire. After death analysis has shown that the dead had their internal organs were liquified.

All attempts to destroy and eradicate the infection have failed- when attacked the microbots, only multiply doubling in size, proving that they are quite resistant to extraction. Despite inhabiting humans and beastials, the microbots have chosen only to attack beastials for some unknown reason- leading many to conclude that this is a biological attack by enemies of the High Evolutionary in an attempt to destroy the empire and this civilization.

Reactions have ranged from panic among the beasital population who fear that no cure or treatment will be found. To pure celebration among second class citizens who believe that the reign of the High Evolutionary and his beastial creations is coming to an end. The brunette said as footage from a human celebration in World Four was shown in the background of the news set she gave her report from. Joy! Celebration! The beastial menace will soon be gone! A sign read as a crowd in the basement of World Four danced in the streets. The camera panned right to see a antelope family- mother, father and fawn watching the celebration in disbelief.

The High Evolutionary and his enforcers are actively searching for the instigator or instigators of the Great Sickness. If you have any leads, please contact the knight core. If you are a beastial exhibiting any of the above symptoms please head to your local healing facility. This is Newton Leaf for Kali Roo, Zeke Zebra and Zed Zebra reporting.

"Report to your local healer?" My sick warrior bear said shivering. "What are they going to do? Make you comfortable while you wait for the microbots to end you and your insides to liquify?"

My she beast had been growing even more cynical when she learned that Lea could do nothing to reverse her condition. Over the last few days it had deteriorated- her fever, congestion, cough, hoarseness, running nose, pains, and aches had all worsened and I noticed that the color of her fur was turning grey. With no cure on the horizon, she demanded to be brought back to the lair to wait for the microbots inside her to... to... I didn't want to even think about it.

As the news report ended, we received a communication.

"Mrs. Frost?" I exclaimed.

"Hi Alex. It has been a while. How is Lady Ursa?"

"Very ill- she is immobile, has a very high grade fever and the shakes. She has grown despondent, and given up hope." I said to Gabby Frost.

"I heard a third of the population is infected, another third is sick and dying leaving the last third to panic." The farmer's wife said to me.

"How is Tauren, Sorren and Lurie?" I said holding my breath.

"Miserable, but safe. Those three visited us just before the outbreak began. Gabe has them and our servants quarantined and thankfully none of them are showing any signs of the outbreak."

"That is some good news Gabby. Don't let any of them out of the house for any reason- if they go into the city or come into contact with anyone carrying the microbots they will become sick and die."

"Agreed. It looks like Gabe and I will be taking care of them for a while." She said to me.

"Or permanently Mrs. Frost." My sick warrior bear wheezed.

"Mistress?"

"If the empire collapses from this, the world will return to what it was before the master's reign. If that happens I want you all to flee and never look back."

(The empire collapsing? Now that was disturbing. But little did I know....)

That evening my she beast and I slept on the sectional she on her back and I on top of her. I pleaded with her not to abandon all hope. I told her that she is a tough fierce warrior who never ever gives up.

Day 1056 (morning)

The next morning I was reactivated for missions by the knight core and ordered to the Situation Room. As I entered I was shocked to discover that there was minimal staffing about 39 knights in total."

"I am sorry to call you away from caring for your master." The caracal said sneezing.

"Yes, I know these are extraordinary times Sanda."

"About a third of our forces are down and out with the sickness." The watch supervisor said beginning the meeting. "More will be joining very soon hospitals are overfull- new victims are being sent to hotels. Healers are unable to find a cure so that leaves only one avenue left- find who invented the microbots and engineered this pandemic."

"Have their been any leads?" An avian eagle in the crowd asked.

"Yes." The caracal said dabbing his nose. "Last week we determined the outbreak was initiated at a medical convention at the Prominence Hotel the previous Sunday."

"How?" Chemar asked nervously.

"A white box was opened in front of attendees infecting them with microbots." I said to the other knights in the room.

"We found the box." The watch supervisor said. "And it's inventor's disguise."

"Disguise?" I asked.

Sanda showed everyone present some type of wearable band. He then picked me from the crowd and attached it to my wrist. In an instant I became a unicorn.

"Quite devious, a mobile holo projector." Emily said.

"All of the knight core is looking for- whoever used this." The caracal said deactivating the device. "This is the highest priority above all else. Unfortunately there are no leads, no clues."

"That sounds like an impossible mission." A wolf in the corner of the room admitted.

"One that we must complete since beastial kind is facing extinction." Chemar said nervously.

And so that morning what remained of the Knights of Wundagore combed the streets of World One desperately looking for whoever disguised themselves as a unicorn to infiltrate the Med-Con as did the Knights of Warwick, Sevren, Sogreth, Sovereign in their respective cities.

I met my partner for the day in the loading dock as I ran system checks in the blue coupe.

"Sir Ram? You look like you were feed into a chipper, sliced and diced and fed back into it again!" I said as he approached the prototype.

"Boy." He said sitting down in the driver's seat.

"What are you doing here, shouldn't you be helping Lea?" I said to the gaunt, sickly looking beastial.

"I have tried everything I can think of, even a few unorthodox methods." The evil beastial said showing me scars on his arms. "Those things will not die!"

Since that avenue of was closed off, we started our mission to search for the target. But time was against us.

Thank you for watching this hub special Is This The End? A sickly looking avian said. He did look to be in failing health his eyes were bloodshot, he was sneezing, his feathers had turned grey and were falling off his body and his voice sounded coarse. This is Yama Kite along with my colleague Newton Leaf.

"That is Yama?! Damn."

(He ain't looking so smug now.)

We are here to discuss the current situation of the empire, this civilization its citizens and whether this is indeed the end. The body swapped centaur- now a human female said.

I want to welcome our first guests Augustice Striker a new citizen and a Liana Snap a rebel from TRUTH who somehow escaped capture. Yama coughed violently as Newton looked at him with concern.

So let's begin with you Mr. Striker you mentioned that you are new comer to our civilization? The brunette female asked him.

Yes. The ex-soldier responded.

How is that possible? Were you living in the wilderness before deciding to join in this civilization? Yama asked.

Not exactly. Auggie started to say.

I think I can clarify for everyone. Ms. Snap said bursting into the conversation. Mr. Striker is a time traveler, he came to our era from the period during the 90 year war. He was born in 4102.

You know about that? Auggie said shocked.

TRUTH knows about a lot of things Mr. Striker.

That is quite remarkable. So what do you think about this society? Newton asked fascinated.

I t is much better than the period I have come from- the level of knowledge, technology and culture is remarkable. However, there is also inequality between citizenry which has made this a dystopian society and has caused the unrest and the unfortunate situation you animal people are facing now. Auggie said point blank.

Aren't you glad you lost that beastial body Mr. Leaf or are you going by Ms. Leaf now? Ms. Snap teased.

Liana aren't you concerned the knight core will come for you now that you are out in the open? Yama asked.

Not in the slightest- they are too busy trying to save beastial kind. Personally I think it is divine justice. I mean the universe is punishing you fuzzies for dominating us and I couldn't agree more.

So you don't think beasital kind will survive then? Newton asked.

No ex-centaur, no beastial will survive the Great Sickness; those that are ill will die. Those that aren't ill will soon be and then die. Lather rinse and repeat. The former TRUTH rebel said looking smugly at the host. By the way Yama, my sister was profiled on your show; you made fun of her for living in a 10' x 10' house. I have a distinct feeling your plush luscious domicile will be available pretty soon. Can I have it? _T_he female said taunting the sick avian. _In fact after the deceased are buried, I foresee that there will be a big sale on all beastials' assets. _

"And you monsters will all be fighting for it before you start fighting amongst yourselves." I mumbled under my breath.

"Why are you watching that boy?" The big horned sheep seated next to me coughed violently. "It doesn't contain any more information than what we already know."

"I was watching- hoping that your counterparts in the other cities might have had a break through." I said returning to footage from the probe.

"We know is that the 'Great Sickness' is killing us at a rapid rate at some point it will get all of us if we don't find whoever is controlling the microbots."

"The master's so called ultimate life-forms will then become extinct reverting this world back to the humans." I said.

"You would really like that boy wouldn't you?" The he beast said glaring at me. "Your doppelgänger was quite giddy about it this morning as well."

"HOW DARE YOU!! After all you and I have been through Sir Ram, how could you even begin to think that?! My loyalty to the empire is without question!" I shouted at the evil beastial. "Besides I can't even think of a world without Lady Ursa, Tauren, Sorren, Lurie or the other beastials I have come to know these last few years. (Maybe without you though.) A Counter Earth without all of you would be like the world I came from- horrid!"

"Well we better not fail then boy...." The big horned sheep said coughing again.

"I am not detecting any enemies in our vicinity Sir Ram." I said looking at the images from the probe again.

"What are you detecting then?" He said coughing violently again.

Boo! A boy said running to a group of canids in a nearby park. I'm a carrier!

Wha, what does that mean? A bulldog asked horrified.

I have microbots inside of me! The human boy who appeared to be a preadolescent said as the bulldog, looked at the terrier and the boxer next to him.

I told you we should have stayed home! The boxer said to the bulldog.

I'm a pepper don't you want to be a pepper too? The boy taunted the horrified canids.

Run away! The terrier screamed.

"A boy tormenting some beastials. The few who are brave enough to be out during this mess. Geez, this is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"I have never heard of that reference." The he beast coughed again.

"It is from my world Gaia."

"It is quite accurate boy."

"This is just so strange, plenty of humans about- but very few beastials. Wait, that is interesting." I said to the beastial knight.

"What is?"

"It looks like a cougar on a hover-bike near the park's entrance. He is arguing with a human." I said casually.

"Let's hear it." The big horned sheep said.

The master just got lucky bringing down those rebels. The plain honest truth is that he is losing control by the day and he is desperately trying to hold on. The red headed man who appeared to be in his early thirties said to he cat.

Absolutely wrong freckles! The empire is stronger than it's ever been! He crushed 55% of the rebellion! The cougar shot back._ _

While the remaining 45% have sworn vengeance!! The man retorted.

Those threats are nonspecific no tail! Just you watch! He will vanquish his enemies, cure the Great Sickness, end this recession and everything will be as it was before! The cougar said disagreeing with the man.

You really believe that garbage? The man face-palmed in disbelief.

I do!

You must be infected too. The man said getting right in front of the cougar's face.

And why is that? The he beast asked.

Because you are delirious sir and very uninformed! The redheaded man said in a accusatory tone. I guess you can't cure stupid.

I will show you who is uninformed. Have you ever ridden on the wrong end of a hover bike?!

To my amazement, the cougar picked up the human and dropped him on the nose of his hover bike and sped off taking his opinionated debate partner for the ride of his life.

"Did we- he just?"

"He did Sir Ram. You want to do something about it?" I said turning to the senior knight.

"No! Our mission is to find our target and end the Great Sickness. Not punish two idiots who are having a political debate."

(Did Sir Ram just ignore a crime in progress?)

*Sir Ram, perhaps the reason the knight core is having such a hard time finding this individual is is because they do not exist.* Overwatch chimed in.

"Thank you Overwatch we know our target used a untraceable disguise." The evil beastial said.

"What is our next move Sir Ram?"

"We are going back to the Prominence Hotel to start the investigation all over again."

I recalled the probe after watching the cougar torment the redhead a while longer.

So we again revisited the Prominence Hotel. Sir Ram spoke to the shift lead a arctic fox (who was wearing a mask) who was one of the few who wasn't sick.

"Is it true that there isn't a cure for this?" He asked the big horned sheep.

"No there isn't." I said to him."

"It is only a matter of time before you become sick." The beastial scientist said.

"That is not good." The white beastial said.

"We are trying to prevent that." Sir Ram said. "I need all footage from the Med-Con that was held here."

Sir Ram and I spent the next few hours interviewing hotel staff, looking at the surveillance footage from the Med-Con trying to find something, anything that the initial investigation missed.

"And that was the presentation the unicorn gave- there is the white box." I said as we studied the footage.

"When he opened the box he infected all that were present." The Ram warrior said. "What can you conclude boy based on what we have seen?"

"Our target has to be a human. No sane beastial would willingly try to wipe out their own kind."

"Precisely." Sir Ram coughed. "Look at his foot-paws. Since when can hooved beastials wear human footwear?"

"Ok so we know our instigator is human. But how do we begin to even find him?"

There weren't any pictures or images of the unicorn without his disguise. We returned back to the front desk to inquire if the hotel had scanned the tracking chips of any of the human attendees of the event. They hadn't.

We had a slight lead. But how to pursue it was another problem.

"Were there any fingerprints on the box?" I asked the evil beastial.

"None. Remember?" He said wheezing.

"You know you aren't looking so good." I said to him.

"It doesn't matter boy." The ram said thinking. "We need to find out if any of the booths and kiosks from the convention still exist. In particular the one from the target's presentation." Sir Ram said coughing again.

So again we reentered the Prominence Hotel and spoke to the arctic fox again.

"Where are the kiosks and sets that were used for the Med-Con?" Sir Ram asked.

"We are looking for the one from the mystery box demonstration." I added.

"Yes sirs. I can show you." He said gasping.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

The canid removed his mask to touch his nose with his paw and then looked at it. There was blood, a lot of it.

"You have some time before your organs liquify." Sir Ram said to the horrified fox.

"How much?" He asked alarmed.

"It varies from beastial to beastial."

The fox quickly led us to a storage chamber in the back of the hotel.

"There is not much here." I said to the shift lead.

"Most of the exhibitors took their sets with them after the convention. However, we did provide a few kiosks and booths. Those are stored here." The shift lead said.

"Any of this look familiar boy?" The sick beastial said as I started going through what was there.

(Which wasn't much).

"Sir Ram. That looks like the booth the unicorn was giving his presentation from."

The beastial warrior used his communicator and started examining every component of the dismantled kiosk.

"There are microbots here." He said checking the read out. "This was where they were introduced to the populace."

I watched as Sir Ram scanned every board, plank of the booth for human fingerprints. We found paw prints from various beastials but no human prints on the stand or podium. Hope was fading.

"What are we going to do?" I asked following the big horned sheep back to the prototype."

"Call it in. Get another team to reexamine the storage chamber." The evil beastial said. "Have them reexamine the seats everyone sat in at the demonstration. Perhaps there was something that has been missed."

"If there hasn't?" I asked the senior knight of Wundagore.

He was silent. Whoever was doing this had been covering their tracks well.

I returned to the prototype where I contacted Sanda to have him send a team to examine the storage chamber- again.

"Please tell me you two have made progress." The caracal moaned.

"Some slight progress watch supervisor." I said.

"That is better than the others." Sanda said moaning again.

"The other teams haven't had much luck?" I asked.

"All of it is bad, Emily, Lea and Lian are down as well." He groaned.

"Sanda are you ok?" I asked the tail-less caracal. He was wheezing, his face was flush, his eyes were bloodshot. He did not look good at all. The watch supervisor groaned again before collapsing on his desk.

I rejoined Sir Ram, he was leaning against the side of the blue coupe.

"What did Sanda say?" He asked coughing again.

"He is down." I said to the beastial scientist as I stared at the hotel and the upscale neighborhood around it- superior to anything that I had seen on my world.

"Art, technology and culture. Thirty-two years of prosperity and progress and it is ending boy, all of it." The sick knight said as we watched the ground and aerial traffic move by our position across the street from the hotel.

(This civilization is remarkable. It can't end like this.) I thought to myself as a white hover vehicle flew uncomfortably close to us.)

!!!_ _

"Sir Ram get down!" I shouted pulling him to the ground just as the vehicle missed us by about a hundred feet crashing into third floor of oval shaped high rise down the block.

"The hell?" The evil beastial coughed.

"Oh no." I said running.

Sir Ram and I ran to the site of the accident. The rear of the hover vehicle was sticking out of the building while the rest of it was inside. The driver a armadillo, was slumped over the steering wheel.

"He looks just as bad as you do Sir Ram maybe even worse."

"I will stabilize the vehicle and check on the driver." The big horned sheep said to me.

"Right, I will check to make sure no one inside was injured." I said.

Carefully, I walked underneath the shattered glass that was raining down from the building as the beastial knight ran back to the blue coupe. Quickly studying the scene, I think I had the easier of the two jobs; I was curious how Sir Ram was going to prevent that vehicle from moving.

The high rise the hover vehicle crashed into was a beautiful oval shaped silver five story building covered by glass panels on all sides. It fit in perfectly with the Prominence Hotel down the block and the high end neighborhood where it was located.

The interior was equally impressive an oval shape in design- it was obvious that interior space was not measured in square feet. I thought it was going to be difficult to locate the impact point because each room and hallway looked identical.

Carefully I ascended the staircase to the third floor and tried to find my bearings. When that didn't work, I started looking through the windows at the end of each hallway and then into any unlocked rooms until I saw what approximated to be excessive sunlight- like from a shattered window. One room did seem to have that in abundance. I knocked on the door.

"Door open." Someone groaned from the other side.

I found a man partially buried underneath some debris.

"Sir are you ok?"

"Ok if you can call having a part of the ceiling fall on you." He called out.

From what I could tell, he appeared to be some type of scientist-researcher. He was dressed in a white and black jacket with black pants. The design looked familiar- but I couldn't quite place it.

"A hover vehicle crashed into the building."

"Looks like another one of those animal types succumbed to that sickness going around." He said as I cleared pieces of the ceiling off of him and helped him up.

"That is the understatement of the year, they are facing extinction." I said pulling him up to his feet. He was about a foot taller than me with black slicked back hair, and angular looking face with an olive colored complexion.

"OW!" The man said. "I wish I could say I sympathize, but seeing how they and their master dominated this world for the last three decades I can't."

"I think you might want to see a healer for that. It looks like it is broken I said referring to his ankle."

"No, that won't be necessary. I supposed they are quite busy anyway. If you can just help me to my lab um..."

"Alex."

"Well nice to meet you Alex, I am Name, Liam Name- super genius. But hey what is in a name right?"

"Um, yeah."

I let the man lean on me as he limped toward a metal door at the far end of the room. "Open he ordered." As we made our way into his work space I noticed that the interior was tiled. Inside was a lone counter, and chair. Around it were six cylinder like chambers from floor to ceiling containing various lab animals some were quadrupedal others were beastials and then there were the ones that looked like they were somewhere in between.

"Oh you are a scientist." I exclaimed helping him to his chair.

"A very good one." He said as he fumbled through the drawer. He reached for a canister.

"Medical?" I asked.

"More like independent." The man said opening the canister. He put his finger inside dabbing some substance that looked to be oil before rubbing it on his ankle.

"This lab looks like it houses some important research." I said as I watched him stand up from the chair putting weight on his ankle.

"There good as new." Mr. Name said.

"That is amazing!" I said looking at him.

"It is a project I have been working on multipurpose robots- robots. A new concept in medicine that is changing the world! I mean will change the world." The scientist said to me.

(Wait what?)

"Really?" I said looking at his ankle.

"They can treat, heal and cure afflictions, scourges- medical or otherwise." He said gesturing toward the animals in his lab.

The human's mannerisms seemed familiar.

"I don't get it." I said to him.

The scientist pulled out a circular device from his drawer. He held it next to my head before looking at it.

"I see, you only possess moderate intelligence. What do you see Alex?" Mr. Name said as I stared at his test subjects.

"I see animals and some that look like they are beastials."

"Wrong, they are all animals- the ones you refer to as beastials are also animals- they have just been modified to resemble beastials They don't have the same level of intelligence."

As I looked at his menagerie it dawned on me that this individual could possibly be the one who transformed Lolly, the Wild's dog into a partial beastial. But then I also experienced another reality shock, could this individual be responsible for the outbreak that was killing 1st class citizens? Well, his indifference and hatred toward the empire was rather obvious. Talk about dumb, dumb, dumb luck.

I continued to act like I was awed and shocked by what the rogue scientist was telling me while I deftly pressed the panic button on my PDA.

"This is quite remarkable! I mean all of this! Have you ever presented your findings? I mean there was a medical convention at the hotel down the street some weeks back." I said leading him on.

"Yeah, I was there."

"As was I, I don't remember running across you." I said staring at him in the face.

"Oh, but I was there." He countered.

"As a attendee or presenter?"

"Oh, a presenter." He said cryptically.

"What type of presenter- creative, innovative, visionary or apocalyptic?"

There was an awkward silence between the two of us.

"Well done Alex. But since you now know the truth, I can't let you leave here; I don't know whose side you are on." The rogue scientist said with a frown on his face.

*ZAP*

He continued to stare at me not moving as Sir Ram entered the lab.

"This better be good boy! Why did you press your panic button?" The evil beastial said in a angered hoarse tone.

"Nothing much." I said folding my hands behind my head as I walked by the confused beastial. "I just found and cornered our target that's all. I guess that means I really don't want the reign of you animal folk to come to an end."

That afternoon beastial kind was saved from oblivion because of a hover vehicle accident. Yes, it really did happen.

Sir Ram was speechless for the second time that day. The rogue scientist was declothed before being transported back to castle Wundagore for interrogation.

The High Evolutionary's chief scientist and I spent the rest of the afternoon combing through the human's lab looking at his notes and documentation. Sir Ram confirmed my findings. This was the person responsible for creating the microbots that instigated the Great Sickness. He had been perfecting them for the last several years- using animals for his dark designs. Lolly was one of them.

That evening Liam Name was interrogated by Sir Ram. He was assisted by Billy his protege who I found out was a relative of his girl Mara.

"I will only ask once human how do I deactivate the microbots?!"

"Getting desperate ram?" The rogue scientist said. "How many of your kind have succumbed? 5%, 10%, 15%?"

"I have what I need, I just want to make sure!" The beastial warrior coughed.

"Oh, and my nannites have stricken you too. I was hoping that at this point the epidemic would have taken out 50% of the population. Oh well."

"Billy, my weapon." The ram groaned to the goat.

Billy handed the big horn sheep his service weapon. Sir Ram adjusted the settings and then fired.

A blue haze enveloped the human as the beastial scientists attached a helmet to the man's head. The same one he had used on me almost three years ago.

"Was that?"

"It was." The evil beastial said to his assistant.

"What?" The human asked.

"You have been shot by a truth ray. Everything you say from now on will be the truth. And a mind probe has been attached as well. I hear it is several times stronger than the one at the Med-Con."

"Won't that wreck his mind?" The goat said applying psychology.

"For what he has done he is going to get the living death Billy. I don't care what state he is in when I am finished! Now let's start with your name." Sir Ram smiled evilly at his prisoner.

It took a few hours, but the beastial scientist was able to find the fail-safe for the microbots Liam Name had devised incase they had gotten out of control and started attacking second class citizens. The information was quickly relayed throughout the empire in an effort to save as many beastial lives as possible. But despite that 15% of the beastial population had died during the pandemic.

My mistress and the rest of the senior knights recovered, over the course of the next few days as did the remaining first class citizens. My she beast hated being in traction but, it just meant that I got to kiss, cuddle and spoil her rotten.

Day 1060 (Evening)

"How is Dongo doing Doria?" My doppelgänger's brother asked.

"Better Neal thank you for asking." The hyena's lover responded. "More important how did everyone else fare from this near apocalyptic pandemic?"

"Bess and I got sick toward the end." The female buffalo calf said. "We were fortunate. As our symptoms were worsening the epidemic ended.

"But the community came by to check on us." Bess said. "It was great to know that they cared."

"Not so good on our end." Ember said. "Cinder and I quarantined ourselves in his bunker after he discovered several of our family had been infected."

"Are you two ok?" Doria asked.

"Yes, we avoided be attacked and/or infected by the microbots but several relatives of ours weren't so lucky." The little aardvark said.

"Cinder did?" Niko asked.

"Yes we lost an uncle, cousin and grandparent." Ember added.

"I would just like to forget that last week happened at all." The she skunk added.

"How did you fare?" I asked Neal's squeeze.

"I fell ill during the middle of it." Niko said.

"She wound up in the hospital. I know, I visited her everyday, not knowing that I was adding to her illness until Cinder showed me how to make a microbot detector." Neal Winter said reluctantly.

"Don't beat yourself up." Doria said this was a nasty attack.

"One that nearly succeeded." I said to my Consortium colleagues. "It is extremely difficult to believe that someone had so much hatred in their heart to try to do something like this."

Ember, Cinder, Niko, Bess and Tess were silent at that revelation.

"Doria, where do we go from here?" Ember asked.

"In spite of this, we have to, we must, keep moving forward. I suggest we highlight and promote the only positives to come out of this."

"Which were?" Ember asked.

"Second class citizens showing kindness to first class citizens." Doria said.

"You mean like you taking care of Dongo and Neil taking care of Niko?" The boy buffalo calf said.

"That is a good idea Doria." Tess said.

"That is going to be very hard and/or very difficult as well." The little aardvark said crashing us back down to Counter Earth. "Did you see the High Evolutionary's broadcast today?"

"How could we not Cinder? It was everywhere." The white skunk said to the boy genius.

"I mean the closing. Here watch." The little aardvark said replaying the dictator's last few remarks.

In closing my subjects.... my enemies, the empire's enemies, made a calculated attempt to end civilization and to destroy all that it has stood for, its accomplishments, contributions and achievements. The individual involved has been found, captured and severely punished for what he has done.

I am saddened that a portion of my creations have perished as a result of this recent pandemic. Further I am outraged that while many citizens lay ill and dying others thought it justified to celebrate their pending demise. The master of all Counter Earth said in his broadcast.

I have thought long and hard about these treacherous acts that I witnessed. I am ordering these revelers submit themselves to judgement and punishment now or I will come and find you. If you try to hide then your families will suffer in your place.

(Wow, someone is extremely pissed.)

These treacherous acts I have witnessed can not go unpunished. Nor can they be forgiven. I have instructed the knight core to continue to route out all lawlessness through out the empire including the rebellion and now these revelers. In my opinion they are no better than those who seek to end my rule. THIS I COMMAND!

With those words the dictator and ruler of all Counter Earth initiated a reign of terror like I have never seen during my time on this world.

To Be Continued....