Hi everybody who reads this blog,

My name is Aurora. I just found out that this blog existed, but from what I’ve read, I’m guessing you know all about me.

So you know I’ve been in the hospital for a while. I’m out now, although I have to go back most days. Anyway, all that stuff is really boring.

I’m kind of freaked out and mad that Nemo’s been writing this whole blog about me secretly, but I don’t care about that, either, right now.

All I want to know is what happened to Nemo after he left JoyTech on Halloween. As far as I can tell, no one’s seen or heard from him since then. It’s like he totally disappeared.

I feel like when I was in the hospital, the world ended or something. Kevin’s gone. Nemo’s gone. Jerry – I think he’s in his house, but he won’t answer the phone or the door or anything.

I found this girl Meegan and talked to her. She said that she went to the Blood River lookout to drink after the show at JoyTech, but that Nemo never showed up there. Not that he would, anyway.

I read Nemo’s last blog, and I got my mom to drive me to Kevin’s place. I couldn’t believe that Nemo would ever do some of the stuff he was talking about – blowing up Kevin’s car? Taking him hostage?

But it was true what he said – the house was completely shut up.

The only strange thing was that all the basement windows were boarded up with plywood, like they had been smashed.

I don’t really know what to think about any of this. I’m really scared, and I don’t know if any of you know anything or can help.

I just want my friend back.

(P.S. - Sorry about the lack of cool pictures in this post. If you like the stuff that Nemo was doing, you can check out the tooning software that he uses here.

No wonder he was so afraid. Kevin was in hiding because he thought I was out to kill him. Me. An escaped mental patient. And from the way he was talking, it seemed like this kind of thing wasn’t totally out of the ordinary in his life.

Here I was, interrogating the guy I had pictured as the mastermind architect of all my problems, and suddenly I felt this overwhelming urge to explain to him what was really going on. I shoved my hands in my pockets and Mrs. Brisby bit one of my fingers. She’s kind of like my conscience in that way.

The next thing I knew I was turning around, walking up the stairs and out of the basement. Kevin was calling after me, “Hey! Where are you going! Don’t leave me down here!” but I had to get out. Blow off some steam before I did something I would really regret.

It was only when I got outside and saw the groups of kids running past in costumes that I realized it was Halloween. I had been about to pull off my mask, but now I kept it on, and joined the crowds on the sidewalk. I jogged slowly out of the remote Palm’s Reach neighborhood.

As I moved through the city, getting closer to my neighborhood, not really knowing where I was going, I started noticing these flyers. The first one I saw stopped me dead in my tracks.

An Environmentally-Friendly Halloween With JoyTech? I had a moment where I felt like they must be going out of their way to mock me, personally. Instead of letting your kids run wild in the streets, bring them to JoyTech where they can eat JoyTech candy, wear JoyTech costumes, and play JoyTech games. And at the end of the night, get a little printout showing you how much you can help the environment by buying everything you own from JoyTech.

Again I didn’t have to think to know what my next move would be. I called Meegan.

“Nemo?”

“Is your band playing a show tonight?”

“What? No.”

“How about a last-minute gig at JoyTech?”

We met in the parking lot just in time to pay off the family-friendly act that had been hired for the evening. Meegan and the guys in her band did their best not to look like gore-metal savages as they set up their equipment in the JoyTech cafeteria that had been converted into a ‘House of Horrors’ using enough cheap paper and plastic props to create a seriously spooky landfill come morning.

Meegan and her band got some weird looks, but they convinced the event organizers that they were just in costume for the occasion.

I had long since taken off my mask. It was too familiar a face to show around JoyTech, but I was letting Mrs. Brisby ride on my shoulder so she could take in the scene. The room quickly filled up with tiny kids, soccer moms, and doting grandparents.

“What do you think, Mrs. Brisby? Is Kill All Humans going to freak these people out or what?”
Mrs. Brisby sniffed at me, and call me crazy, but it seemed like almost a contemptuous sniff, like she thought my prank was pretty lame.

“Think you could do better?” I asked, and she cocked her head, like she was thinking about something. Then, I swear, my rat’s eyes suddenly flashed bright blue, like there was a little LED light in her brain.

Before I could take a closer look, the lights dimmed, and a voice said, “Is everybody ready to boogie down to the Monster Mash?” The crowd cheered, and then Kill All Humans started playing.

Meegan wailed like a banshee, and a guy in a leather vest and diaper spit fake (?) blood onto the crowd in front of the stage while the three guitar players competed with the drummer to see who could make more terrifying noises.

It didn’t take long for the crowd to start stampeding for the exits, but it was only once they got there that the real screaming started. Suddenly, people were climbing up onto table and chairs, kicking over apple bobbing games and candy bowls to get off the floor.

I craned my head over the crowd to see what was going on, and heard Mrs. Brisby squeak happily in my ear. Hundreds of rats were streaming in through every entrance to the cafeteria. There were so many you could actually hear them over the music, and the screaming. The scene was utter and total chaos.

As rats ran in a polite circuit around me, I looked down at Mrs. Brisby. Could I add ‘summoning other rats’ to her list of talents? “Did you do this?”

She squeaked again, then stretched one paw out and yawned hugely. Boring. No big deal. “I concede defeat, lady,” I said to her. “You are the Halloween prank master.”

Sometimes I forgot that no one had a bigger bone to pick with JoyTech than Mrs. Brisby. She had spent her life as a test subject in one of their labs until I rescued her. Obviously, she hadn’t forgotten.

People ran around me screaming. Meegan’s band continued playing in chaos-induced bliss. I grabbed a glass of punch that hadn’t yet been knocked off the table beside me.

Happy Halloween, Mrs. Brisby! Happy Halloween, readers! Happy Halloween, Toon-FX - thanks for the cool pics!

Oh, and Happy Halloween, JoyTech.

A video from back in the good old days, when I was still training with the parkour guys:

Cool effects done using Toon-FX toon video.

The craziest, worst incident went down last night. And since I’m lying here with a busted foot, I had plenty of time to toon it for you guys. Big thanks to Mrs. Brisby for all the pics!

Here’s my idea of pretty, in toon form, of course. It’s always been my idea of pretty, since we were eight years old.

Meegan looks nothing like Aurora. She dresses in combat gear, for one thing. And her face beneath her mask was smeared with dirt.

She has crazy hair. Dyed reddish-pink, half dreadlocked, and cut at all different lengths, some going almost to her waist. Her face is covered in piercings that look like wounds and make her hard to look at directly.

She has thin lips that look made for screaming, although I didn’t know why I thought it at the time, and I don’t know what color her eyes are, because she has in colored contacts, one blue and one red, that make her look fiercer than she already is.

I wouldn’t call her ugly, but the Throttler is definitely no Aurora.

I had this thought, then regretted it, because the way she was examining me made me realize that I was no prize, either. And why would it matter anyway? It wasn’t like this was a blind date.

My foot throbbed unpleasantly.

“Hmm, you’re younger than I thought you would be,” she said.

“Sorry.”

“You’re still in high school, aren’t you? At least we don’t go to the same school. That would be, just, embarrassing.”

“Sorry,” I said again. Why was I being such an idiot?

“Do you recognize me?” she demanded.

I shrugged. “I dunno. Why?”

Meegan made an annoyed sound, and her grandma came to my side and whispered, “She’s in a band! She’s very proud about it.”

Suddenly I remembered posters I’d seen plastered all over town all summer. Posters of a girl with pink hair. Screaming.

So that’s where the screaming mouth came from.

“Oh. Yeah. Um,” and then I pulled the name out of nowhere, “Kill All Humans, right?”
Meegan actually looked surprised. “Wow. Did you see any of our shows?”

“Nah. I just remember the name because it’s ripped from Futurama.”

“Hmph. Well, you’d probably hate us, anyway.”

We glared at each other.

And that’s how I became friends, or maybe a better word would be “allies,” with the Throttler.

It’s a credit to how easy Toon-FX is to use that I managed to post this while shot in the foot.

(If you’re lost, check out my last tooned note here.)

“Here is my proposal to you, Suspect 7. You continue to attempt to thwart corporate evil. I will continue to spin your efforts into dazzling PR for my employers. All will continue as before, save for one small thing

“In exchange for your freedom, you will leave young Kevin Joy and his family ALONE.” The last word came out shrill and screaming in my ear and I cringed away from him.

He smiled, then rose to his feet, dusting off his knees and tittering to himself. I could feel Mrs. Brisby trying to burrow deeper into the depths of my pocket.

It was now or never.

Ignoring my pounding head, I sprang to my feet, still partially tied to the chair. Mr. Giggles’ mouth opened in a round O of surprise as I barreled into him, shoving him towards the thug with the gun.

As the other thug reached for me, I reached up to grab some manacles dangling for the dungeon ceiling, and I used the guy’s body to pull myself up and over him, swinging out through the door into the hallway beyond.

Then it was time for my patented superhero move: running like hell.
I ran blindly, not sure if I was getting out or trapping myself deeper in the building.

I was still half-drugged and out of it when I burst through a set of doors to the outside. Suddenly I was in the brightness of early morning, on a busy downtown street in front of a totally unassuming highrise.

I pulled off my mask as passers-by looked at me strangely.

A taxi honked at the traffic in front of me. A bum asked me for a quarter.

The whole scene was so surreal that I had to force myself to get moving. Not that anyone followed me out of the building.

I started to walk, looking for some familiar marker to orient myself. But I couldn’t focus. All I could think was: Kevin Joy. Kevin. Joy. Kevin Joy.

New Guy, who had shown up at school at the same time that the JoyTech Global Improvement Company set up headquarters here in Ring City.

New Guy, who was always telling Aurora to stop worrying about JoyTech.

Mrs. New Guy, waving my picture around.

“Leave Kevin Joy and his family alone.”

As I tried to wrap my head around it, I felt like I was suffocating, like I was drowning and every breath brought in more water.

Mrs. Brisby’s heart beat like a tiny machine gun, in my pocket, against my chest.

When I came to, the first thing I saw was a bare light bulb swinging over my head, like something had just hit it.

I could feel Mrs. Brisby’s little heart beating wildly in my pocket. I went to move but my hands were tied behind me, strapped to the chair I was sitting on.

My head felt roughly like the time me and Aurora stole Jerry’s Jameson and drank the whole bottle before passing out at the Blood River lookout point.
I tried to get a decent look around, but my mask was sort of sideways on my face and I couldn’t see much. I was definitely in some kind of windowless, unfinished basement. Below the swinging light bulb I could see old wooden shapes, crisscrossed in chains.

I silently willed Mrs. Brisby to take pictures, document everything.

Then I heard a voice say, “Suspect 7 is awake, sir.”

There was a crackle of static, then the room swam around me and I must have conked out again because the next thing I knew, someone was adjusting my mask on my face and whispering, “wake up,” over and over.

I blinked. The man standing in front of me stood back and smiled. “I do have to apologize about the circumstances of our meeting,” he said pleasantly. “The basement setting, all these ancient contraptions. You’d think we brought you here to torture you!” He giggled.

The giggle was creepy. The guy was creepier. He looked like something out of A Clockwork Orange. His clothes did, anyway. He had a perfectly hairless head, no-color eyes, and a long, dark scar running down his forehead.

“Why did you bring me here?”

He laughed. “Only to talk, S7, only to talk! You don’t mind if I call you S7, do you? A bit of a pet name we have for you, yes?” He nodded in a very self-satisfied way. “You need not reply! You need not say anything. Only listen, S7, and listen well.”

As he spoke, I began to struggle with the restrains binding my wrists. I tried to be discreet about it, but then I noticed two guys on either side of the door leading out of the dungeon. One of them was holding the walkie-talkie; the other, a gun.

They both shook their heads at me very slightly, and I stopped struggling. Mr. Giggles seemed not to notice the exchange.

“I fulfill a very unique function on behalf of my employers,” he was saying. “Do you know what that is, S7?” He didn’t wait to see if I had an answer.

“I manage problems, and I turn them into non-problems. I see a threat, and I turn it into an asset. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“You work for JoyTech!” I blurted out, and stupidly, tried to jump out of my chair, which resulted in me tipping over on to my back. My head hit the dirt floor with a thump.

Mr. Giggles came and stood over me, his expression unperturbed. “Thusfar, Suspect 7, I’ve managed to turn your role as a potential threat into that of an asset.

“Each time you have brought something to light that ran the risk of reflecting unpleasantly upon my employers, I have made it blossom into an opportunity to for us promote our role as environmental stewards.

“Indirectly, you have participated in earning my employers acclaim as green thinking pioneers.”

I think at this point I made some grunting sounds and writhed around on the floor a bit.

“Hardly what you had in mind, I know,” his voice dripped with sympathy. “And unfortunately, my employers don’t see you in quite the same positive light that I do,” he paused and sighed heavily. “They’re concerned, S7. They’re deeply concerned that you are on the cusp of becoming more trouble than you’re worth.”

He walked a circle around me, tapping his chin as if deep in thought. I gave one last heave at my restraints and felt something snap, silently.

Suddenly, Mr. Giggles crouched down, bringing his mouth to my ear.

It was only then that I noticed the blood on the collar of his shirt.

I keep going over New Guy’s last words in my head:

“You’re the one that’s gonna get her hurt, Green.”

“You’re not flying as low under the radar as you think.”

Was he talking about taking Aurora to the movie? Or could he have been referring to my…other activities?

The weird thing is, the whole situation brought to mind another encounter.

I don’t think I ever wrote about this, but after the food fight at the football game, New Guy’s mom did show up at our house to have a talk with Jerry.

It was pretty funny. When Jerry opened the door, it looked like Tommy Chong coming face to face with Heidi Klum.

He just stood there, mouth slightly open, while this uber-fashion plate blonde that didn’t look like anybody’s mom adjusted her garden party hat against the breeze and air-kissed his check.

Then she strolled into our trashed kitchen (hey, what can I say, we’re bachelors), wrinkled her nose and said, “Thank you. I think I’ll stand.”

The conversation basically consisted of New Guy’s mom berating Jerry in an extremely calm, polite voice, while he did his best to look like he had a clue what she was talking about, which he didn’t.

As a rule, Jerry minds his business, and I mind mine. All calls from the school principal go to my cell phone.

The only fireworks came at the end of the conversation, when Mrs. New Guy said something vaguely threatening, to the effect of, “I’m considering this issue resolved. Any further problems will be brought to the attention of the proper authorities.”

Did I mention Jerry hates being threatened?

The conversation when from polite to shouting match in five seconds flat.

The reason I bring this up is because of the way Mrs. New Guy ended it.

She suddenly said, in this real conversational way, “You’ve spent some time in prison, haven’t you, Mr. Green?”

Jerry stopped yelling.

Then she said, “You’re not flying as low under the radar as you think,” and she walked out the door without closing it behind her.

So what is that? Some kind of favorite turn of phrase around the New Guy household?

It makes me think that I should learn more about his family.

So, last time I posted, the sun was coming up behind me, and I was flinging myself through my bedroom window.

I land, as planned, on my bed, but not as planned, right on top of Aurora. Luckily it’s dark, so I have time to whip off my mask and throw it into a corner piled with laundry, while she’s flailing to get out from under me.

“Nemo, get off!”

Again, I’m glad it’s dark, because I know her eyes are looking murder at me, and for one second, with the adrenaline of the chase still pumping through me, I have a crazy urge to keep her pinned under me for a second. Just to see what would happen.

But I know what would happen. Never mess with a girl that just missed her Batman fix because of you.

To appease her, I rolled to the side, hooking her legs so that she ended up on top of me. I could see her glare now as my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, and for a second, I thought she was going to sock me.

Let her.

I rested my arms behind my head. “Sorry about Batman.”

“Sorry?!” Furious, she pummeled my chest with both her fists. “You have no idea what I went through to do this with you!”

Me and Aurora always used to go see the new comic book movies together, but now that she’s practically married to New Guy, she has to sneak around to do stuff with me. And I knew that.

After we worked together on the animal thing, she sort of apologized for saying we couldn’t hang out anymore. She admitted that she just didn’t want New Guy to feel ‘betrayed’ by our friendship.

There were a lot of things I didn’t like about that, but I did like that Aurora could potentially be ‘betraying’ New Guy with me. It made me sound like…competition.

So this movie was supposed to be our big reconciliation hang out, and I had forgotten about it completely.

“I’m really sorry.” I moved my hands to her hips, because I wanted her to get it, that I felt bad.

“You’re a jerk.” She jumped off the bed and wandered over to my desk.

Toon-Photo was open on my computer, and she started fooling around with it disconsolately.

That’s when I knew she was going to forgive me, so I went and sat beside her and we played with the Toon-FX stuff for a bit, taking pics and tooning, just like old times.

It’s nice to have Aurora back around.