"Move it! Lemmie see!"

"Quit pushing already!"

The three children stopped viewing the painting in the Muse City Hall long enough to being wrestling with each other. Several artisans were visiting the city of Muse from Greenhill to present their works to the populace.

Their works had such acclaim, that a guard was posted around the finer paintings while City Hall was open to the general populace. However, most of the elite were allowed priority viewing and the rest of the citizenry of Muse were on the museum equivalent of "standby".

But that didn't stop some of the more enthusiastic young folk to sneak into the City Hall at the dead of night to look, then mock, the artistic treasures. However, these particular children were actually interested in the works for a change, and fought each other to get good looks.

This particular painting was a beautiful rendition of the Greenhill Academy, with mayor Teresa Wisemail standing in front, welcoming new transfers.

The three really young boys had finished fighting and were now attempting to get the painting off the wall to get a better look.

"Isn't Teresa pretty?"

"Hey, don't hold it like that! You'll get smudges all over the paint!"

"Be quiet! Someone will hear us!"

"Oh no! Watch what you do with that . . . !"

One of the kids accidentally slipped and let go of the painting. The uneven pulling sent the other two falling on their backs and the portrait flying through the air.

They watched with horror as the painting tore, impalled on the pointy hair of the statue of General Solon Jhee. The children winced as the painting just slid down the hair, splitting more, until Teresa's face was totally gone and it was Solon Jhee's face on Teresa's body welcoming students to Greenhill.

The sound of State Guards running down the hallway got the children to stop gawking and escape from City Hall the same way they got in. By the time the brothers got home, the whole city was in an uproar about the vandalism during the night.

For the next several days, the mayor's office conducted an investigation into the situation, sending officers in the Muse Investigative Department from house to house, questioning residents.

By the time the investigation got around to the Kusanagi residence, only the most obnoxious agents were still on the case. Mrs. Kusanagi was busy picking up after her three miniature tornados when there came a knock on the door.

"Hello? Can I help you?"

Standing at the door were two state soldiers wearing special uniforms to indicate they were a part of the internal affairs department for the territory of Muse.

"Hello, ma'am. We're with the Muse Investigation regarding the recent vandalism at City Hall. We were wondering if we could ask your family some questions."

Mrs. Kusanagi let the two inside and ran upstairs to get her children. Mrs. Kusanagi managed to drag her three sons downstairs. There had been some dispute over the toothpaste container and it's contents were now being adorned by the boys. Their names were Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro.

Throughout the questioning, the soldiers noticed how nervous and defensive the three kids got for no apparent reason and on questions not really related to the crime. But despite the questions, neither soldier could punch through the iron defenses of the children's alibis. Of course, they had no chance with the experience that three brothers who were actively mischevious had.

As the soldiers were about to leave, one of them turned back to the children.

"You know, I really hope you three are telling the truth."

"We are!!!" they all shouted simultaneously.

"That's good." the soldier said with a mysterious smile. "Because we've been having a lot of reports lately that the Boogyman has been seen on the outskirts of town."

All three boys swallowed hard.

"Oh, you've heard of him. You know . . . the Boogyman only comes for little children who've been lying to grownups about bad things. They say his face is scarred and a demon servant follows him wherever he goes . . .just waiting to tear the flesh off the bones of bad little children."

Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro all looked at each other, sweating nervously, but none of them spoke a word. After a few minutes, the soldier turned to leave. After he was gone, the three boys ran upstairs in a hurry.

They shut the door and made sure their mother was off doing something else before they started talking.

"H-he was just saying that to scare us, right? There's no boogyman for reals . . . right?"

"N-no . . . of course not! It's all some stupid joke!"

"AHH! Look out the window!!!"

The two children raced up to the window where the third was standing and crouched down. Peeking over the windowsill, they saw something that made their blood run cold.

A man with a scarred face slowly enter Muse through the front gate. He was wearing a large cloak and he was looking at young people very intently . . . searching for someone in particular. And, following him at a safe distance, was a little demonic rabbit with antlers growing out of it's head.

The only thing keeping the children from screaming was the fact that they were too busy trying not to wet their pants. When the man looked in their direction, they dived down to avoid being seen.

When the man had gone, the three boys huddled up again.

"Oh my god . . . it's true!"

"The boogyman! He's here!! He's going to get us!!!"

"He is NOT going to get us!" Kyo said, defiantly. The other two looked at him for some kind of explanation.

"Look, there's three of us and one of him. We're experts at this kind of stuff. We'll just have to make sure that we get HIM first. Operation 'Green Screams'!"

His brothers pondered that for a moment, before smiling and nodding. They'd get that mean ol' boogyman and teach him not to mess with the Kusanagi boys.

Unfortunately, the "Boogyman" had no idea what was in store for him.

Gremio wandered silently through the massive capital of the Jowston City-State, keeping his eyes glued to the little groups of children that would occasionally cross his path.

The Young Master was still missing . . . and Gremio was losing his trail. From Toto village, he had the option of going west to the capital city, Muse, or going south to the port town of Radat.

It was becoming apparent to Gremio as the hours dragged on that he made the wrong choice. He sighed deeply and wiped some beads of sweat off his brow. It was very hot outside today and he was still dressed in his heavy cloak and green outfit. The Toran Republic was much colder than this. Not to mention Jowston, aside from the strange mess going on near the Highland border, was relatively quiet and boring . . .

"Fast as fast can be . . . "

Gremio froze in his tracks. The background noise just died down as the beating of his heart threatened to deafen him. The world went black and white as he slowly turned around.

" . . . you'll NEVER catch me."

Lightning seem to just bolt down from a cloudless sky and strike the twitching face of Gremio. His eyes filled with flames as he looked down at the patiently sitting form of the maturing Jackalope.

The memories just came FLOODING back for poor Gremio . . . and we all know what that means.

It was looking up at him, waiting to see if it's playmate was interested in a race today. He'd been following Gremio for days without ever being noticed. Satisfied it had Gremio's attention, the jackalope sat waiting to see if he was interested.

Gremio reached for his hatchet, raised it over his head like a samurai warrior, and announced the beatings would begin by saying:

"I . . . HAVE HAD . . . ENOUGH . . . OF THIS!!!"

And the stupid Jackalope had the nerve . . . to act surprised!

"Eep!"

Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro all said goodbye to their mother and told her they'd be back for dinner as they were going out. Each of them carried a baseball bat and their "lil' bastard travelling kit".

"Come on! Last time we looked out the window, he was around this place."

"Kyo, do you think we can take him? You heard that soldier . . . "

"You guys are such chickens! We're Kusanagi's! We've gotten away with tons of stuff before and those stupid people at City Hall STILL haven't got a clue it was us! We can handle one boogyman!"

Famous last words, his brothers thought. And they were right as a little fuzzy bunny with deer antlers zoomed past them and down the alley. They turned to look at it briefly, then back at where he came.

"I'm going to slay you, you little maggot!!!"

Gremio came racing towards them, his hatchet raised over his head with both hands. The kids did the following:

1. Their eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
2. Their pupils shrunk to the size of dots.
3. They screamed their little heads off.
4. And they ran down the alley, away from Gremio.

The children ran as fast as their little legs could take them, with a hatchet swinging Gremio behind them.

"We can take him, huh!?"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault he saw us!"

"Waaaaaaah! I want my mommy!!"

Gremio was too deep into super-pissed mode and was pursuing the Jackalope, which was just in front of the three boys. He'd be very happy if those kids would get out of his way so he could have a clear shot, but if they didn't, he'd just have to work around them.

Skidding to a stop, Gremio wound his arm back and threw the hatchet at high speed. The kids all jumped out of the way and the Jackalope turned the corner at the last minute.

The citizens of Muse were gathering near a large platform that had been erected near the entrance to Jowston Hill.

Several public officials were up top and proclaiming they would capture the art vandals at all costs. They had a painting under a cloth that would replace the destroyed work until they could catch the criminals, as Muse's vow.

The official's removed the cloth to reveal a large portrait of deputy-mayor Jess. It was quite a flattering piece, even though some of the citizens said less than flattering things about it.

The proclamation was interrupted by a whistling sound as a hatchet flew through the air and hit dear ol' Jess right between the eyes.

And the crowd cheered.

Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro all managed to climb into some rain barrels and hide as Gremio stalked back and forth, intently searching for some sign of his target. After several moments, Gremio rushed off.

"Is he gone yet?"

"That was close! Good thing we hid."

"Um . . . guys . . . my barrel wasn't empty."

Goro and Benimaru both peeked out of their rain barrels and into the third, where Kyo was scrunched against the side. He was rather tense and trying not to cry or shout as that would wake the sleeping Jackalope in his lap.

"Guys . . . help . . . "

Thus it came to pass that the Kusanagi children brought home a new friend, sneaking it past their mother. After the Jackalope woke up, they fed it some lettuce and let it hop/zoom around their room while they planned their next move.

"Well, now what we do? You saw how we just ran when he came after us . . . there's no way we can just toss our patented stink bombs at him and hope he'll go away."

"Stop trying to be so smart all the time, Kyo! You're going to get us all killed."

"Fast as fast can be, you'll never catch me!"

"You know, I liked the first few times it said that, but can't you get that thing to shut up?"

Kyo and his brothers all looked out the window everytime Gremio walked by. They cringed as they noticed him checking out every child under a certain age for someone. They assumed he was looking for them.

Getting back into their room, they took out a map of the city they took during one of their "night expeditions" to City Hall.

Marking several points, they gathered gear they've stashed over the years and prepared their next plan. This time, it was personal.

Not that it wasn't personal the last time, but they liked that phrase and I felt obligated to use it.

"Jackalope? In all my years with in animal services, I don't believe I've ever heard of that species."

The clerk at the Muse city administrator's office looked up from his paperwork at Gremio, who was fidgiting in his seat. He adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses after figuring that the man in green really wasn't kidding and got up to check some documents in the file drawer.

"You see, sir . . . " Gremio said, having regained his normal composure. He decided to pose as a farmer in order to get past the normal articultural department questions.

"I, uh, am having some problems with the creatures. They're ruining my life . . . destroying my crops. What can you tell me about them?"

The clerk came back with several papers that he started to shuffle through to come to the basic information.

"Ah, here we are. Well, what do you know? It really is a species."

Jackalope:

- The Jackalope is an extremely rare species of rabbit that at some point was crossbred with an antelope. Whether this occured naturally or through mystic means is undetermined.
- The Jackalope is one of the few endangered species that was neither hunted to extinction by man or died out from natural enemies. The Jackalope is so rare that is suffers from poor breeding habits.
- Another interesting fact about the Jackalope is that early on in it's life, it learns a single phrase in the human language. Unlike the parrot, the Jackalope speaks the phrase randomly, not hearing it spoken, and independant of any outside stimuli.
- While concrete proof of the Jackalope's existence is hard to come by, it falls under the Muse charter of endangered species protection and cannot be hunted under any circumstances.
- Proof of the Jackalope's existence is rewardable by the city of Muse for a sum of, and not limited to, 100,000 potch.

"And that's the size of what we have on the creature, sir."

Gremio sat back in his chair, stunned beyond words. 100,000 potch?! That creepy little bugger was worth 100,000?! Suddenly, Gremio wasn't feeling so bad now.

He slowly got up, thanked the clerk for his time, and walked out of City Hall. This was quite an opportunity. If he could just catch it alive, he could sell it to the City of Muse, have enough money to fund a larger search for the Young Master, and be rid of that thing forever.

As Gremio made his way down the steps, but what should appear on the street but a fuzzy bunny with antlers. It looked up at him before turning and racing down a street.

"Wait! Come back! I only want to pet you!" Gremio screamed as he followed in hot pursuit.

The sound of a dog howling and the flapping of raven wings were the only things audible in the dark alley that Gremio found himself in. He was nervous, but pressed on.

Where was that damn Jackalope when you actually wanted it?

"Gotcha!!!"

Gremio looked up in time to see a small marble-sized ball collide with his nose in a shower of pain. He staggered a bit as the ball fell to his feet. After recovering, Gremio looked up at where it could have come from, but saw no one.

Confused, Gremio got down on a knee and picked the ball up. It was black and featureless . . . . UNTIL IT EXPLODED INTO A CLOUD OF STINK GAS!!!

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Gremio screamed as his unprotected eye and nose started to sting him badly. He held his face and staggered around wildly.

"We did it! We got him!"

"Quick! Before he recovers!"

"I'm coming!"

Kyo, Benimaru, and Goro jumped out from where they were hiding with the Jackalope and got out their wooden swords from Kendo practice. They stood as a party of 5 (with the Jackalope taking up two slots) and got ready.

Gremio was still too dazed from the stink bomb or he would have noticed the three of them raise their right arms and pointing to the sky, with a white cylinder surrounding them.

They jumped forward and started to race around Gremio in a circle. When he recovered enough from their bomb to see them, they all leapt in from different angles and started to beat the living crap out of him with their bokkens.

They leapt back into formation and poor Gremio was so dazed that he still had no clue who was attacking him.

The Jackalope started pawing the ground like a bull and raced at Gremio, picking him up in it's antlers and launching him into the air. He went flying like a vegetable out of Viktor's mouth and landed in the middle of Main Street.

Several of the townsfolk stared at the prone Gremio and the children that came running out of the alleyway, triumphantly.

"Hurray!!"

"We did it!! We beat the boogyman!"

"Let's go back and tell everyone!!"

Several minutes later, and about 10 levels higher for the children, Gremio managed to struggle to his feet.

"What . . . what the hell was that?!"

He looked over to where he got tossed and saw the Jackalope leaving the alleyway at a rather content hop and head back to City Hall.

Gremio chased it again, with his hatchet raised over his head, and finally threw it with all his might, hoping the Jackalope didn't see it in time to dodge.

Well, while the Jackalope never saw the hatchet flying in the air, Gremio's aim wasn't the best with his puffy, stink-bomb inflamed eyes. It flew down the street and lopped the head off the statue of Lord Jess that was being wheeled up to City Hall to replace the ruined painting.

"Jess"'s head fell off the statue and rolled down the slanted main street . . . just rolling until it passed the gates and out of the city.

Once more, the crowd cheered.