Camoflunks - S2 - Issue 2: Cheaters, Cheaters, Pumpkin Eaters! Well... They're Not Really Eating Pumpkins... But You Get What I Mean!

It's a relatively normal day for once, in fact, it's an above average day.  Rod got up and dressed before Coach started practicing on his trumpet, and, for a wonder, with plenty of energy.  He actually kept up with Mark and the other reasonably fit Reds on the obstacle course!

At breakfast, the food wasn't half bad.  The pancakes weren't burned, the eggs weren't runny, and the bacon actually tasted like bacon!  As unbelievable as it is, he breezed right through his chores without having to take a single break, (and got a lot more done than usual!)

Everything was going so smoothly Rod could have sang!  Well, maybe not in front of anybody, but he could have!

Heck, he probably would've made it through today's battle without the constant feeling that he was going to wet himself, that he had felt the first time.  In fact, he was eagerly anticipating the battle!

That's how the day was going, until...

"We're not going to be in the battle today?!"  Rod says disappointedly.

Mark says, "Yeah, whoever lost in the previous battle isn't involved in the next. Coach and the Doc flip a coin to see which of the other two teams faces the winners."

Rod asks in a resigned tone, "Well, who's gonna face the Greens today?"

"That'd be the Yellow team today, partner."

Rod looks in the direction the voice came from and sees a kid about Leo's age, Benjamin Crockett -- who's always claiming that he's descended from Davey Crockett, king of the wild frontier -- is a rather unimpressive wannabe cowboy, his black hair is about an inch long, and combed down flat against his head and his face and hands are the only parts of him that are tanned.  Over his hair, he's wearing a Stetson, and around his neck he has a red bandanna.  He is also so skinny, that his long-sleeved, red plaid shirt and blue jeans are simply hanging on him, and his boots have cobras drawn in marker on either side.  However, he makes up for his looks, (and the fact that he always needs to hike his loose pants back up so they don't fall down,) by being the sharpest shot and the fastest draw in the camp.

The first time Rod saw Ben was during the second day of camp, tailing Mark as they made their escape from the Green team's base with the flag... and then stepping on a land mine.

Mark asks, "They flipped already?"

"Flipped? They're already starting! We're gonna miss it if we just keep standing here!" Ben says urgently.

Mark, Ben and the others from the Red Cabins run from the field of outhouses that they were cleaning out, over toward the Manager's Cabin, Rod following with a puzzled expression on his face.

Just as they are about to turn the front-left corner of the cabin, Rod asks, "What do you mean, 'miss it?' I thought nobody but the teams that are fighting are supposed to be back there."

Rod's question is answered the moment they reach the front of the cabin, out on the front porch, -- which was built sticking out past the edge of the roof, sort of like a stage -- he sees that several dozen monitors have been set up, with wires running inside.

Rod's mouth moves, but no words come out.

Doc. Otto comes out of the Manager's Cabin, his hair is a greasy black mop and he has five o'clock shadow and green eyes.  The Doc's white tank-top is blotched with oil stains, and his black cargo pants have holes worn in the knees.

The Doc leans over by the monitors and plugs a few cords in, then stands up and presses the power buttons on all the screens.  One by one, slightly flickering images of different locations in the woods show up on the screens, and Rod's growing fear is realized, people had seen him as frightened as a mouse through the whole battle last week!

Mark looks around for a moment, then cups his hands around his mouth and says, "Hey Shawn!"

Shawn a slightly smaller version of his Dad, the Doc, sixteen years old and dressed completely in red, turns around at the sound of his name, and comes over from the front of the crowd of other campers.

"Shawn, I'm gonna go grab some snacks, fill me in on whatever I miss?"

"Sure."

Mark starts heading for the Cafeteria, then Shawn says, "Second thought, I never really like watching a battle anyway, just reminds me that I can't be in it. I'll go get the snacks."

Mark says, "Um, okay."

"Be back in a jiff!"



Sam and Eric, wearing camouflage suits and army helmets, run into the hangar where the small fighter-planes and mini helicopters are, followed by some of their team-mates. The two of them both run to the nearest jets and hop in. The others scramble to claim their own after tying a yellow cloth to their tail-fin, or to pile into a chopper.

Eric settles in and pulls out a coin, "K' bro, heads or..."

"Tails."

The same moment Sam says that, Eric flips the coin.

"Heads!" Eric announces after catching it.

"I'm flight leader this time, Sam, you're my wing-man, we're flying V formation. Ted, you take the other one, choose a wing-man, and follow my lead. Any questions?  No?  Good.  Let's move!"

By this time, all the choppers the others took are out of the way, so they take off.

Once outside, they veer up over the trees and fly toward the lake.



Back in the hangar, one of the Yellow team's members is still trying to start his plane!  He revs the engine a few times, "Come on, come on!"

Unfortunately, nothing happens.

Finally he just gets too frustrated, says, "Oh, forget this!"  He takes his gun back out of the cockpit and runs to catch up with anyone who went on foot.



Joe and those who he didn't set to guard the flag or provide air support, stalk through the underbrush of the woods, Joe, unlike mostly everyone else, isn't wearing a shirt.  Any girl who likes muscle-bound, action hero types would swoon at the sight of him... if not for the fact that he still has a nasty poison-ivy rash from the day before, which is even affecting his speech.

Soon they hear a loud buzzing noise, they look up, and half a squadron of fighter-planes flies overhead.  Suddenly, there's the sound of someone running through the bushes, and one of their own comes out.

"Jewwy, what are you doing hewe?" Joe says in a garbled, yet unnervingly calm voice.

"You'we ouw best piwot and, no offense, virtuawy usewess in a gwound fight."

"Stupid plane wouldn't start!  And the others were long gone, so I decided not to bother with a different one."

Joe ponders for a moment, then says, "Fine. You hewp them manage 'the bag." Joe points at three guys on a four-wheeler, one of them is at the handlebars, the other two are holding down a big burlap sack with something rather large squirming around in it.

Suddenly, a human hand thrusts out of the bag, and lifts one of the guys holding it down by the collar of his jacket.  Jerry rushes over and smacks it, it lets go of the guy and Jerry shoves the hand back in.

"I'm guessing that's Phil?" Jerry asks.

The guy driving the ATV mutters, "It was."



Shawn throws the doors of the cafeteria open and shouts, "Hey Auntie, you in here?"

A voice like chimes echoes from the kitchen, "Yes, I'm in here. What do you need?"

"The Greens are fighting the Yellows, we're gonna need some chips!"

"Oh of course, didn't the last one between them last three days straight?" She says as she searches the cupboards.

Unlike the other two lunch ladies, "Auntie," is young, about mid-twenties.  Her shoulder length hair is strawberry blonde and her eyes are blue.

"Ooh, here we go.  How about cheddar flavored?"

"Sure!"

Auntie reaches up to grab the chips, then suddenly she twitches, "AH! Oh, ow, ow!"

"What's wrong?" Shawn asks with a concerned expression.

"Nothing!  Nothing.  It's just a weak muscle in my back. I'm supposed to get a massage twice a week to treat it, I have one scheduled today, I've just been putting it off for a while."  She says reassuringly.

"Shawn, you can reach them can't you?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I think I need to drive down to Beatrice's so she can give me my massage for today. She's probably going to give me an earful while she's at it.  'You need to take better care of yourself!'  I won't hear the end of it for a week."

"Do you need any help getting there?"

"Oh no, I'm fine. It isn't quite as serious as it sounds. I'll be back later."

"Okay, if you're sure."  Shawn says just before the door swings shut behind her.

Shawn grabs the chips and shuts the cupboard, then starts hurrying back.

Halfway back, Rod comes running up to him, "I came to see what was taking you so long."

"It took me this long, because that's how it's written."

"...What??"

"I'd elaborate, but then I'd be breaking the fourth wall.  Isn't that right, reader?"  Shawn says staring up at the sky.

"Shawn, sometimes you outdo yourself at being weird."



"Pine leader to Chartreuse leader, anything yet?"  One of the Green team pilots says into his radio.

"Nope. Nothing here, Pine."

"Peridot, what about you?"

"The same... wait a minute.  Yellow-bellies at two o'clock!"

"This is Chartreuse.  Pine, Peridot, you scramble, I'll lure them in!"

"Copy that Chartreuse, Pine and Peridot out."

All but one of the Green pilots spread out and start flying up near their maximum altitude of two hundred and fifty feet, while the other one flies a few feet above the tree tops, towards the enemy.

The Yellows are just cruising along, then Eric says, "Ya' know, I'd think we would have found some Greens by now."

Then a Green plane pulls up hard in front of them, turns upside-down, and flies away to their right, back the way he had come.

"Whoa!  That maniac could've hit me!" Eric says, frustrated.

"Don't sweat it Eric, We got him!"  Ted says, turning to chase down the Green.

"Ted, wait!" Sam says as he and Eric veer their formation to follow Ted's.

Finally the Green jerks his plane vertical, with Ted on his tail.

They follow up and up and up, then realize they're surrounded by Green pilots!  Yellows fly in every direction trying to get away, but to no avail.  Whirling, spinning, weaving.  Nine Yellow team pilots, against fifteen Green.

"There go the twins." Leo says as Sam and Eric's planes disappear from the monitor.  One Yellow left, hounded by one of the remaining Greens, off away from his team mates.

The Yellow team pilot is veering this way and that, trying to shake his pursuer, but eventually, he's hit.  The plane goes into "crash-mode," the controls for the weapons on his plane lock, and he has five minutes to land before the engine dies and it can't be started up again.

The Green pilot flies a few circles to see if he can find his squad, but finds nothing.  He decides to return to base, and a few minutes short of it, sees Joe and his troops moving in on the base in force.

He swoops low, and drops a barrage of  "Gnat swarm" bombs on the invaders.  Many of the Yellow troops are left laying on the ground, itching all over.

After a few passes, he runs out of bombs, and flies back to base, though it isn't over for the surviving Yellows.  The noise of the bombing attracted the attention of nearby Green foot soldiers, who arrive in very short order, led by Jeffrey Harty leader of the Green team himself.

Normally dressed like a Carpenter, Jeff is sixteen and has the devilishly good looks of a hot-shot pilot from an eighties TV show, close cropped hair and a chin that you can't not notice.  Jeffrey's Achilles heel, is that his sense of direction is non-existent, he occasionally gets lost in his own house!

Acorns are flying through the air, and the Yellow team is on the verge of defeat, that's when Joe shouts, "Rewease the secwet weapon!"

In the few seconds that follow, no one outside of the battle can tell what's going on.  Green Cabiners are scattering in every direction and a blur rushes across the two screens showing the area.

Rod says, "What the heck!?"

Mark notices that in the corner of one screen, there's an ATV with three Yellow guys sitting on it, watching, and on the ground is a sack large enough to fit a full grown man.



Soon the battle is over, with the Yellow team the victors.  Most of the Green team members who come out look dazed, some even a little jumpy.

For a change, Jeff is actually with them instead of being lost back in the woods.  Mark runs up to Jeffrey and asks, "What happened in there Jeff?"

Jeff, with a shaken expression, says, "I'm really not sure Mark, it was so..."  Jeff shudders and keeps walking.



In Yellow Cabin One, Joe has the guys carrying the bag put it down and open it.

"Come on out Phiw."  Joe mumbles.

Out of the bag, crawls one of the most disturbing things, an average sized guy, (average by Yellow Cabin standards meaning huge,) with black, buzz-cut hair, four entirely black eyes, six, five-foot long arms and teeth all an inch long!

Joe says with a sinister smile, "Things awound hewe awe gonna get weaw intewesting."

Camoflunks - S2 - Issue 1: New Season!! Whoo!

At 6:30 in the morning, Coach gets out of bed and goes to the mirror hanging on the wall to the left of his bed and combs his hair, which doesn't take very long since it's only an inch and a half long.

He puts on his Red Sox cap, covering his gray hair, which is rather thin toward the front.

Coach brushes his teeth, puts on a short-sleeved olive green shirt, camouflage pants and combat boots.  As he's walking out the door of the Manager's Cabin, he picks up his trumpet.

He walks out onto the front porch and mutters to himself, "Now... what to play today? Hmmm... oh, perfect."

Coach lifts his trumpet and begins playing When The Saints Go Marching In. And hits all the wrong notes.



Rod covers his head with his blanket and groans as soon as Coach starts playing.

Everyone else gets up and starts getting dressed and eventually Rod throws his blanket off and starts getting dressed too.

As one of the other Red Cabin team members pulls his shirt on, he says, "I didn't know you could play When The Saints Go Marching In, in C minor."

Billy, a well-muscled kid with dreadlocks and a Jamaican accent, replies, "That's because you're not supposed to!"

Everyone in Red Cabin One starts laughing uproariously.

The only dress code requirements at camp is a pair of combat boots and an armband in your team's color.  Other than that, the kids can wear whatever they want, within reason.

Rod, thirteen years old, four-foot-eight, with longish red hair and gray eyes, is wearing jeans and a red t-shirt.

Mark, a five-foot-six African-American kid of sixteen with short black hair and brown eyes, is wearing dark gray cargo pants and a red sleeveless shirt.

And Leo, four feet and one inch tall, has short brown hair, blue eyes, a mole on his chin and wears a pair of rectangular glasses, a dark green button-up shirt and red shorts.

The reason behind why each of them is wearing at least one red article of clothing, is that after spending as much time at Camp Adanarg as they have, one starts always wearing team colors whether as a conscious decision or not.  Those who have gone there the longest can be picked out easily as they wear nothing but red, blue, yellow or green respectively at all times.

As each of the Reds gets dressed, they start slowly spilling out of their cabins and going over to the obstacle course.

Rod, Leo and Mark get there, and see that the others are, rather than running it, rearranging it!

Rod quirks an eyebrow and asks Mark, "Why are they moving stuff around?"

Leo replies, "Oh yeah, the first day we got here, Coach said that the course gets rearranged every Sunday, but you were so late that day," Leo suddenly stares off into the middle distance, as he is prone to do, "that you almost got locked out."

Rod's face turns a faint shade of red and he practically growls, "It wasn't my fault that that Bus broke down like, twice, on the way here!"

Then they hear Mark say from over by the climbing wall, "If you two are about done," Mark breaks off mid-sentence with a grunt as he and a few others start tipping it on it's side and continues saying, "we could use some help here!"



At the Cafeteria, everyone from the Red is rubbing sore muscles or cradling bruised limbs.  Rod and Leo are shuffling along the line at the food counter.

The first of the three aging lunch ladies, Beatrice, with her gray hair pulled back into a bun at the back of her head so tightly it's pulling the skin of her face taught, making her wrinkles barely noticeable. Which also increases her already commanding presence.

Beatrice always wears a cold, calculating look.  When you combine that with the fact that when she talks to you she has her head inclined so that she's looking down her nose at everyone, you feel as if she is a queen in her court, rather than a cook.

She asks in her high, though still intimidating, voice, "Pancake or waffle?"

"Pancake." Rod squeaks as though he's being interrogated.

Then they get eggs from Marge, Beatrice's younger sister, whose hair still retains a little blond in it.  Though she's the younger of them, Marge is almost always falling asleep, and often forgets where her glasses are even though they are usually perched on her head.

And finally, they pass by Auntie, who is stirring soup for later.  No one really knows what her name actually is, they just call her Auntie.

As soon as they sit down, Mark tells them to finish their breakfast quickly.

"Why?" Leo asks around a bite of pancake that could easily pass for a hockey puck.

"Because us and the Yellows have to go clear out the backwoods for the battle tomorrow."

Rod's voice, muffled by scrambled eggs with strange black flecks that he has already learned to ignore, says, "What are we supposed to be clearing out of there?"

Mark, finishes swallowing a gulp of milk and replies, "You know, gathering acorns for ammo and pinecones for the Doc to make into grenades.  Also, getting rid of thorned vines and thistles."

All Rod says in response is, "Ah."

Mark finishes explaining that they do this every week the day before a battle, and that the Blue and the Green Cabins did it the last time. The Greens doing more of the work than the Blues, under the tyranny of Mo.

After finishing their breakfast, they all meet up with the Yellow team outside of the fenced off area that takes up twenty of the twenty-five acres of the camp, where they have their battles with acorn firing guns and itching powder grenades and other things like that. The rest of the time, they go hiking back there or go swimming in the lake.

Joe Spivy, leader of the bullies and hooligans which make up all of the Yellow Cabins, one through four, says in his voice as deep as an avalanche, "About time you got here.  I was starting to think we'd have to do this ourselves.  And if we did, then I'd have to give you a black eye."

Joe's face looked a lot like a looming thunderhead when he said that last part.

Mark's responds, "Yeah well, unlike you guys, we didn't inhale breakfast."

Joe stands there for a moment with a foreboding look on his face.  Some of the Red cabin boys start worrying that they're all going to get pummeled, though none of them voice their concern.  Then suddenly Joe starts shaking with laughter, a noise very similar to the sound hippos make.

"You got us there, Mark.  Especially in Glen's case." Joe says, still laughing, and pointing over his shoulder at a guy even bigger than himself, who then gets an embarrassed look on his face.

Joe continues, saying, "The way he eats, you'd think he has a black-hole in his stomach!"

Now, Joe is seventeen years old and is six and a half feet tall, weighs three hundred pounds, and can lift four hundred!  He is very well tanned, has short, spikey orange hair and likes wearing leather, denim, and his barbed golden chain necklace.

Eventually they all get to collecting acorns and pinecones and clearing out unpleasant plant life.



A few hours later, the two teams are just wrapping up, when one of the Yellow Cabiners comes running over to Joe and says, "Um, Jozer?"

"What?"

"Phil's gone."

"What do you mean, gone?"

"Gone as in, he was there one moment, then he wasn't."

"Alright, show me where you saw him last.  Sam!  Eric!"

Two of the Yellow Cabin boys stop trying to pull a large thorn bush out of the ground and run over to stand in front of Joe.  They are completely identical in appearance, short blond hair, pale blue eyes and freckles.  Complete pretty-boys, and they're even dressed the same, denim shorts and white tank-tops.  The only way to tell them apart is that rather than wearing their armbands on their arms, they wear them like headbands, each with their name written on it.

"You're coming with me. Phil's gone."

"Yes, Joe." The twins say at the same time.



"It was here." The Yellow Cabiner says.

"Good, now you go take everyone back to the cabins. We can handle finding him."

"Got it!" He shouts over his shoulder as he runs back to where everyone's waiting.

He had led Joe and the twins to the edge of the fence surrounding the camp.  A place Sam and Eric know all too well.

Sam starts saying, "Uuuh, I don't think..."

"...this is such a good idea." Eric finishes.

Joe grunts, then climbs over the fence. Sam and Eric cast baleful looks at each other then follow Joe.

They keep walking through the forest and shouting Phil's name.  Then Joe trips on a large root and lands in a bunch of leafy plants.

Joe gets up and brushes himself off, muttering, "Stupid tree."

Then Sam says, "Hey uh, Joe..."

"Yeah?"

Eric points at the ground where Joe landed and says, "That's poison ivy."

Joe shrugs and says, "I'll be fine so long as I don't scratch."

The twins give each other quizzical looks and follow Joe as he continues walking.  They finally reach a clearing, with a small cliff rising over the trees on the other side.

Joe, already starting to look blotchy from scratching without noticing, walks into the clearing, raises his hands, cups them around his mouth and shouts, "Phil! Where are..."

Joe stops when he hears something climbing out of a horridly polluted looking pond.

"Phil?"

Camoflunks - S1 - Issue 7: Yeah, You Probably Saw It Coming.

Sullenly getting up at the usual 6:30 am, Coach gets dressed, grabs his trumpet, walks out onto the Manager's Cabin's porch, and begins to play... even, worse!



"You, go get my laundry!  You, come here!  I said, come here!  C'me-'ere c'me-'ere c'me-'ere c'me-'ere, come here!  Come, here!" Mo Shouts.

Left and right, residents of the Red cabins slave away at order, after order from Mo, including Shawn, Rod and Leo.  Unfortunately for them, Joe's lease on the twins -and his patience- has expired, so Sam and Eric had been dragged back to the Yellow Cabins.

Rod and Edward are forced to drag big, heavy logs around and neither of them know what sort of torture Mo is putting Leo or Shawn through.  Eventually Rod says, "I really don't see, *Grunts* how this is accomplishing, *Grunts* anything! *Pants*"

"That's *Growls* the idea, *Gasps* amigo." Edward says through clenched teeth.

"Faster you two!" Mo barks at them.

They pick up the pace, for about five seconds until Mo stalks off.  Leaning against Red Cabin Two, Edward's older brother Carlos, traitor to the Red Cabins, keeps watch, making sure that nobody is slacking off and quite clearly enjoying watching everyone else doing stuff he doesn't have to!

Rod, about to direct a sneer at Carlos, looks over his shoulder... and stops.  He sees Brent talking to Carlos.  Carlos gets a perplexed look on his face, then Brent starts insisting on something.  Carlos nods, though he also looks skeptical, even... wary.

Brent looks around, pulls something from his pocket and slips it into Carlos' hand.  Brent's eyes lock onto Rod in a grim, suspicious way.  Brent leaves, whispering something into Carlos' ear as he passes.  Carlos takes a quick glance at what Brent gave him, shoves the camo-bucks into his pocket, and acts as if nothing out of the ordinary has just happened.

"Hey, uh, Ed? Could you..."

"Sure." Edward says, as Rod hands him the end of his log and Edward hefts it onto his back.

"Thanks."

"Don't, *Grunt* mention it." Edward then starts dragging both of them! If Edward had his teeth clamped shut before, now you wouldn't be able to pry them apart with a crowbar.

Then Rod sneaks -more like stumbles- into the trees, trailing Brent.



Meanwhile, Leo and Shawn are digging holes and filling them back in again.

"My name is Shawn and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole..." Shawn sings while he digs, he's also wearing an over-large bathrobe, a belt and a floppy, pointy cap so he looks like one of the Seven Dwarves.

Leo, sitting on the ground next to the hole with his hands over his ears and a frustrated look on his face, says in a irritated and slightly raised voice, "Are you done now?"

Shawn answers in a gruff voice, "Aye, I be done lad."

Leo exhales in relief, grabs his shovel and hops into the hole.

When the hole reaches four feet deep, they start filling it back in. While they're doing that, Leo asks, "So, how many times were we supposed to do this?"

"Ten," Shawn replies.

Leo gets a stricken expression on his face and looks at the patches of dirt marking the fifteen other holes they had dug and filled in already.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Digging is too much fun to just stop at ten holes!" Shawn says with a smile.

"And when were you planning on stopping?!"

"Eighteen."

Leo groans and promptly falls flat on his face.

Shawn leans over him and says, "Uh, Leo?"

He waits a moment, then shrugs and goes back to filling in the hole... and singing.



Rod ducks behind a tree just as Brent whips his head around.

Brent sweeps his gaze over the trees and undergrowth behind him and seeing nothing, closes his eyes and listens.

"I know you're back there, I can hear you breathing."

Rod realizes how hard his breathing is and slaps a hand over his mouth, thinking to himself, "He is just, plain, freaky! The guy must be like, part... dog, or, something! Hmmm, maybe if I had a Milkbone."

Rod slowly looks around the tree, Brent has disappeared.

"Oh come on, where'd he go?"

Someone taps him on the shoulder, Rod turns around to find Brent standing behind him.

Brent holds up a pair of binoculars and says, "Try these."

Rod takes them and says, "Thanks!"

Rod leans out from behind the tree again and starts looking around, saying, "Alright, where did you run off to Bre..." Rod slowly turns back around to face Brent, swallowing nervously.

"Uh, hi?"

Brent replies in an annoyed tone, "Hi Ethan Hunt."

Rod looks around for a moment, then looks back at Brent and asks, "How do you do that?"

"My Uncle takes me rabbit hunting sometimes." Brent leans against a tree. "Now tell me, what are you doing?"

"I'm... talking to you." Rod says with an innocent grin.

Brent says in a monotone voice, with a blank face, "Don't make me hurt you."

Rod's eyes snap wide open at the threat then he sighs and says, "I was trying to figure out why Mo didn't find out about me almost getting him busted," Rod's face takes on a look of suspicion, "why you didn't tell him that I tried?"

Brent slouches in a resigned manner, now it was his turn to sigh, then silence for a few moments until Brent finally says, "This is going to seem really cliche, but... I'm an undercover agent."

Rod, looking rather surprised, says, "Wow, very cliche."



Leo and Shawn are just about finished filling in the sixteenth hole, Leo pauses for a moment to wipe the sweat from his face and notices that Rod is no longer helping Edward drag logs around.

"Hey Shawn, where's Rod?"

Shawn stops shoveling dirt and looks at where Rod and Edward were dragging the logs in circles in front of the cabins.  He and Leo are around the far end of Red Cabin four, where the other two can't see them.

"Beats me." Shawn says with a shrug.

"I think we should go find him."

"Eh, I guess." Shawn sticks his shovel in the ground and takes off his Dopey costume.

They try their best to slip away quietly, not an easy feat considering that between the two of them, they have all the stealth of a drunken rhinoceros!

They start their search at the Yellow Cabins, where after being noticed, they have to pay some of the Yellow Cabin's brutes twenty camo-bucks each, else the Yellows threatened to go tell some of the Blue Cabin gangsters that they had some escapees.

Next, they check by the Green Cabins, where they ask the first person whose attention they can get whether they had seen Rod around.

"Rod? You mean... Rod... Thomson?"

They can barely hear what the guy says over the sounds of hammers, saws and electric drills. The Green Cabiners, all naturally-born carpenters and handymen, are working on their bi-monthly repairs of their cabins.

"Yeah, have you seen him?" Leo shouts over the racket.

The Green ponders for a moment, then finally answers, "Not since breakfast. Why do you ask?"

"Nevermind."

"What?" The Green Cabiner asks.

Leo says, "I said, never mind."

"A little louder."

"I said... NEVER MIND!" Leo shouts at the top of his lungs... just as the noise stops.

Every boy in the Green Cabins stares at him like he's a rabid bear.

Leo's face starts turning red, and he says, "Uh, sorry. We'll, just be... going... now."

Leo and Shawn walk away at a quick pace and the noise soon resumes.  Finally, they come to the Blue Cabins and it seems that everyone from the Blue Cabins is off occupying themselves elsewhere.

Leo, stamping impatiently, says, "Where is he?!"

Shawn clears his throat and says, "Um, Leo,"

"What?!"

"Brent's coming." Shawn says, pointing in Brent's direction.

Leo lets out a strangled yelp and runs into the nearest cabin.  Shawn follows Leo in and closes the door behind him.

After regaining his composure, Leo kneels under one of the screen windows to listen and Shawn joins him.

They can hear someone saying something to Brent, but they can't make anything out until they've stopped right out front of the cabin Shawn and Leo are hiding in.

"...you sure the evidence against Mo is safe?"

Brent replies, "Yes Thomson, every bit I've found is hidden. No one who shouldn't lay their hands on it is going to find it."

Leo's face freezes in shock, "Rod is helping the Blue Cabins?!"

Shawn says in his best Yoda voice, "Crossed to the Dark-Side, he has. Nothing now to do, but bring to the Manager's Cabin, that evidence."

Suddenly, they hear Brent and Rod coming up the stairs, they quickly hide under two of the bunkbeds.

Brent's hand closes on the door knob and he starts to turn it, then stops.  He starts jiggling the knob.

"Stupid door knob's stuck again!  It's about time this thing gets fixed!"

Leo backs further under the bunk he chose, and feels something brush against his back.  He turns over and sees the corner of a piece of paper.  He pulls it out from between a board and the mattress, unfolds it and sees that it's the list of weapons Mo stole and sold to some kids outside of the camp.  Leo also finds several photos of Mo and his goons robbing kids.

Leo urgently whispers to Shawn, "Shawn, I found the stuff.  Let's get out of here!"

They just manage to open one of the windows and jump out before Brent gets the knob to work.  They run as fast as they can toward the Manager's Cabin to bring Mark the good news.



Brent and Rod stride toward the Blue Cabins to retrieve the evidence, while Brent finishes explaining the situation.

Rod asks, "So you have agents in all the camp factions?"

"Yep.  Our little organization was started not long after Mo became leader of the Blue Cabins"

"Does this spy, group, thingy of yours have a name?"

With a deep sigh Brent says, "Yes, we are the Secret Intelligence, Surveillance and Security In Emergency Situations."

"So you're the S, I, S, S, I, E, S?" Rod says, barely containing a smirk.

"Unfortunately... yes.  It was our leader's idea."

"And who is your leader?" Rod says with a giggle.

"Secret."

"Oh, *Teehee,* of course... Hahahahaha! Sissies! Heeheehee..."

"I will give you a black eye if you don't start acting seriously."

"...Eep!"

"Thank you."

After that neither of them says anything until the cabins are in sight, then Rod breaks the silence by asking, "How much evidence do you have exactly?"

"Enough."

"Okay, fine.  Are you sure the evidence against Mo is safe?"

"Yes Thomson, every bit I've found is hidden.  No one who shouldn't lay their hands on it is going to find it."

They start climbing the stairs of Blue Cabin one and when they reach the top, Brent turns the door knob, only to find that it won't go all the way.

Brent starts jiggling the knob while saying, "Stupid door knob's stuck again! It's about time this thing gets fixed!"

After assaulting the knob for half a minute, the door finally swings open.  Brent rushes over to one of the bunks and reaches underneath, after a moment his eyes go wide and his mouth hangs open.

Rod asks, "What?  What is it?"

"It's gone!  It's all gone!"

"Do you think it might have something to do with that window hanging open?" Rod asks, pointing toward the back of the cabin.

"C'mon Thomson, whoever took it can't have gotten far yet." Brent says, dashing out of the cabin.



Mo smiles.  It's his favorite time of the day, the part where he gets to make fun of Mark.  He opens the door to the prison room at the back of the Manager's Cabin.  Inside are the three cells where troublemakers are kept until they've learned their lesson, and in the one on the left is Mark, in need of a shave... and a shower!

Mark bounces a tennis ball against the wall and catches it again and again.  Mo leaves the door hanging open and walks into the prison room.  He need not close it, Coach is reading down by the lake and no-one else is there to overhear.

"Ahhhh," Mo sighs in amusement.  "Somehow, I don't think I'll ever get tired of this picture."

"Haven't you gloated enough for one lifetime?"

"No, not really, no.  I'm out here doing as I please, and you, the innocent one, are in here, doing nothing."

"Nah, I'm just waiting is all." Mark says in a bored tone.

"Waiting for what, exactly?"

Mark taps the side of his nose with his finger and says, "Ohhh, you'll see."

"Yeah, sure, if you say so." Mo says dismissively.

Outside the Manager's Cabin, Leo and Shawn arrive both out of breath.  They walk up the steps and through the door, they both freeze in place when they see Mo inside talking to Mark.

Leo whispers, "Alright Shawn, hand me the stuff."

"You mean the evidence?"

"Yeah.  What else would I mean?"

"I thought you had it."

"And I thought you had it!"

Leo starts grumbling to himself, then he notices the microphone on Coach's desk.

"Hey Shawn, I have an idea."

Mo is now crouching in front of Mark's cell, a foot from the bars.  On the other side, Mark is sitting on the floor the same distance away.

For a moment, Marks eyes seem to drift lazily looking over Mo's shoulder, then he looks back at Mo and asks, "So what have you been up to lately?"

"Oh, just the usual, robbing unsuspecting kids..."

All over the camp, everyone can hear Mo's voice over the P.A. system, "...causing general misery all around and, oh, you don't know this, but before you even knew I was up to no good, I was selling weapons to some homeless kids who roam around outside the camp.  There's a surprising amount of them out there and they're almost always arguing amongst themselves."

Mo stands up and turns to leave, but standing right behind him are Coach, Billy, the stranger with the black coat with the hood pulled up as usual, and Leo holding the microphone.

Mo clears his throat and says, "Ummm, I can explain?"

Coach with a sour look on his face says, "Oh, I'm sure it'll be an interesting story Mo.  Billy?"

"Ya, Coach-mon?"

"Let Mark out of there, will ya?"

Outside the Manager's Cabin, all the occupants of the Red Cabins are there.  Mark starts giving them all high-fives, then the stranger in the black coat walks out and meets up with Brent.

Brent salutes and says, "Well Boss, it seems you where right.  Mo didn't realize what hit him 'til it was too late.  Heck, we didn't see this coming."

The strangers says in their voice of indeterminate gender, "All that matters is it's over now."

The stranger turns to leave, but Rod blocks their path and asks, "So,who are you anyway?"

The stranger hesitates for a moment and then says, while trying to get past him, "I... I'm no one you need to know."

The stranger dashes around Rod, but he manages to grab them by the coat.  The stranger starts trying to pull it out of his grip and then in a desperate tone says in an absolute girl's voice, "Let go, Rod, honey, *Gasps.*"

As soon as Rod heard her say, "honey," he let go of the coat.  Everyone is staring her.  If their jaws went any lower, they'd fall off.

Maggie pulls off the hood and says, "Surprise?"