Norman "Sonny" Steele is a former championship rodeo rider who has sold out to a business conglomerate and is now reduced to making public appearances to sell a brand of breakfast cereal. Prior to making a Las Vegas promotional appearance to ride the $12 million champion thoroughbred race horse who responds to the name of Rising Star, Sonny discovers to his horror that the horse has been drugged and is injured.

Identifying with the plight of the horse and disillusioned with the present state of his life, Sonny decides to abscond with Rising Star and travel cross-country in order to release him in a remote canyon where herds of wild horses roam. Hallie Martin, a television reporter eager to be the first to break the Rising Star story, locates Sonny and follows him on his unusual quest through the countryside. While en route, the unlikely pair have a romance as they avoid the pursuing authorities.

Act I takes place at about 11 a.m. Don, who owns the junk shop where the entire play takes place, has sold a buffalo nickel to a customer for $90 but now suspects it is worth considerably more. He and his young gofer, Bob (sometimes called Bobby), plan to steal the coin back. Bob has been keeping watch on the customer's house and reports that he has left for the weekend with a suitcase. Teach, a poker buddy of Don's, arrives and learns of the scheme. He persuades Don that Bob is too inexperienced and untrustworthy for the burglary, and proposes himself as Bob's replacement. Teach suggests they steal the whole coin collection and more. Don insists on their poker buddy Fletcher going with Teach. Teach continues to argue that he can do the job without Fletcher.

Act II takes place a little before midnight on the same day. Teach and Don make final preparations for the burglary while waiting for Fletcher, who is late. Teach tells Don that Fletcher is a liar and a cheater at cards, and prepares to go commit the burglary on his own. Don tries to persuade him not to take his gun with him when Bob appears at the store. He attempts to sell Don a buffalo nickel, similar to the one Don had sold the customer. When asked where he got the coin, Bob is evasive. Teach suspects that Bob and Fletcher have organized and completed their own burglary behind Don and Teach's backs. He asks Bob where Fletcher is. Bob tells him that Fletcher was mugged by "some Mexicans" and is in a hospital, but when Don calls the hospital, they have no record of his admission. Bob claims that he must have been mistaken about the name of the hospital, but the suspicious Teach strikes him on the head with a metal object. Another friend calls, corroborating Bob's story and naming the correct hospital. Don calls the hospital and confirms that Fletcher has been admitted with a broken jaw. Bob confesses that he made up the story about the customer leaving with a suitcase, and that he bought the second nickel from a coin dealer in order to make up with Don for his failure to keep tabs on the customer. Don admonishes Teach for wounding Bob and orders him to get his car so they can take him to the hospital.

The play shows Bobby Gould, introduced in Mamet's 1988 play ''Speed-the-Plow'' and his time in Hell after he dies. Gould is subjected to questions from a devilish personage referred to simply as "The Interrogator." The Interrogator has had to interrupt a fishing trip in order to question Gould and he is consequently displeased. Through the course of the play, Gould confronts whether or not he is a "bad man."

The Simpsons win a free spa weekend. At the spa, Homer is nearly killed when a mysterious person locks him into an incredibly hot steam room with a wrench, but he is saved when Krusty the Clown unlocks the door. This prompts Homer and Marge to see Chief Wiggum, who suggests that they seek help from someone who can understand a murderer's twisted mind – a restrained Sideshow Bob, who is not only isolated from the other prisoners, but is released from prison for the first time since "Day of the Jackanapes", much to Bart's immediate discomfort. To ensure the safety of Bart's life, Wiggum places a shock bracelet on Sideshow Bob's ankle to force his murderous urges kept at bay when he comes to live at the Simpson house. Bob asks Homer to list all the people who may want him dead, and follows him around to investigate who the mystery assailant could be. During their day, they end up at a repair shop, where Homer chastises the mechanic, Junior.

Homer and Bob go to Moe's Tavern, where Lenny gives Bob advice on how to properly murder Bart. Afterwards, the assailant fires at Homer with a gun, before escaping in a tow truck. Bob suggests that Homer should stay home and out of sight to be safe, but the latter is named the King of the Springfield Mardi Gras, in which he must ride on a float for the whole day. Bob discovers that Homer won because someone rigged the ballot in his favor, but Homer takes part in the parade anyway in hopes of luring out his attempted killer. At the parade, Bob learns that a brake line on Homer's float has been cut, and draws a correlation between the wrench used to lock Homer in the steam room, the wrenches in the tow truck and a smudge on the spa invitation, realizing that Junior is the killer. As the float goes out of control, Bob saves Homer by getting fired out of a cannon and grabbing Homer with his huge feet from above, just before the float crashes into the Museum of Swordfish.

Homer and Bob end up giving chase to the killer, who is revealed to be Frank Grimes Jr, the illegitimate son of Frank Grimes, who holds Homer responsible for his father's death. Junior attempts to kill Homer to avenge his father, but is foiled when the police arrive. That night, after Homer puts Bart in bed, Bob reveals himself from behind the bedroom door, having taken possession of the remote for his shock bracelet. Considering Lenny's advice, Bob decides to go back to his deadly side and almost kills Bart without hesitation but realizes at the last second that he has grown accustomed to Bart's face and cannot bring himself to do it. Now deciding to go on the run, he tries to take his leave, but gets zapped continuously by his shock bracelet (because of birds pecking the remote after it landed in their nest).

Marge takes Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse to the library to study. When they go inside, they realize that the library has removed all the books except for the popular ones. Marge makes the best of this situation by telling stories about history.

Henry VIII

King Henry VIII (Homer) is a gluttonous slob who stuffs his face while singing, "I'm Henery the Eighth, I am." A herald (Sideshow Mel) announces the entrance of Henry's wife, Queen Margerine of Aragon (Marge), who tells him to stop singing. Henry wipes his face with Magna Carta and gripes that Margerine has born him only a daughter (Lisa). That night Henry dreams of a son (Bart) and strangles him, screaming, "Get out of my dreams and into my wife!"

When Anne Boleyn (Lindsay Naegle) promises to produce a son were she his wife, Margerine intervenes and drags Henry to a marriage counselor (Doctor Hibbert). Henry explains that he wants to marry Anne, but cannot execute his wife because her father is the King of Spain. The counselor tells him that while his feelings are valid, marriage is hard work. Henry then threatens to behead the terrified counselor, who quickly reverses his position.

The Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More (Ned Flanders), protests that divorce is not permitted in Roman Catholic Church. The King retorts that he will start his own Church. More objects, prompting Henry to "cannon-ize" him in honor of his principles by shooting him out of a cannon from the roof of Hampton Court.

Henry's new Church grants him his divorce, yet Margerine's lawyer (the Blue-Haired Lawyer) orders Henry to give half of his kingdom to Margerine; he rips a map of the British Isles in half, giving her Ireland. As Henry marries Anne Boleyn, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Reverend Lovejoy) alters the Sign of the Cross by saying, "In the Name of the Henry, the Hank, and the Holy Harry. Amen...Henry."

Nine months later, Anne bears Henry another daughter, and is quickly beheaded by an executioner (Chief Wiggum) on Tower Hill. Henry marries a total of six times, including to the squeaky-voiced Jane Seymour (Miss Springfield), the unfeminine Anne of Cleves (Otto Mann), and the elderly Catherine Parr (Agnes Skinner). He still fails to produce a male heir, and executes his wives whenever he tires of them. This prompts a courtier (Moe Szyslak) to inform Henry nervously that they are running out of pikes, resulting in his own beheading.

Finally, in a scene set to the tune of "Greensleeves," Henry is old and sick, lying in his bed with Margerine by his side. He apologizes for having locked her up in a dungeon and asks her to become his Queen again. Margerine accepts tenderly, then violently smothers Henry with a pillow.

Milhouse leaves eagerly to start his school report on Henry VIII, only to be tripped by Nelson, who steals his notes.

Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea

Meriwether Lewis (Lenny) and William Clark (Carl) are assigned to explore the West by President Thomas Jefferson (Mayor Quimby). They meet a tribe of Native Americans, whose chief (Homer) offers them the guidance of his daughter, Sacagawea (Lisa), whose name means, "Little know-it-all who will not shut her maizehole." They are accompanied by her husband (Milhouse), until he is slaughtered by Sacagawea's brother (Bart).

Sacagawea gives them many tips on how to survive the land, including how to scare a cougar, but quickly becomes fed up with Lewis and Clark's stupidity. Finally, she leaves them and sets off back home. She encounters a cougar, but before it can attack, Lewis and Clark save her using the advice she gave them. The party arrives at the Pacific Ocean and a heavy downpour begins, prompting Lewis and Clark to name the rain-soaked place Eugene, Oregon. The two explorers reward Sacagawea by creating the Sacagawea dollar – which Marge explains can be exchanged at the bank for a real dollar.

Mozart and Salieri

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Bart Simpson) is a big hit in Vienna, playing sonatas on the grand piano and pushed along by his overbearing, money-hungry father (Homer Simpson). Antonio Salieri (Lisa Simpson) is resentful of her brother's talents, especially when Mozart wins the award for best composer. At Mozart's flatulence-themed opera, ''The Musical Fruit'', Salieri serves the Emperor (Montgomery Burns) drugged wine. The opera is a success until the foppish audience sees the Emperor asleep and mimics him, leaving Mozart stunned.

The failure of his opera leads to Mozart's fall from popularity, after which he develops a high fever and becomes deathly ill, enduring heavy leechings at the hands of an incompetent doctor (Dr. Nick Riviera). At her brother's deathbed, Salieri tells him she wanted to ruin his life, not kill him. Mozart confesses that he thought highly of Salieri's work, believing that it would be remembered more than his – but his youthful death ensures he and his music will be immortalized forever. He then says, "Eat my pantaloons", and dies. The next day, Salieri visits the Emperor's court to submit Mozart's Requiem as her own. The Emperor, however, is already focused on Ludwig van Beethoven (Nelson Muntz), whose performance of "Ode to Joy" on the piano prompts him to declare all other music obsolete, to which, Beethoven laughs at Salieri to the tune of the opening of Symphony No. 5. Crushed, Salieri throws the Requiem away, boards a carriage filled with lunatics, and laughs maniacally as it drives away.

Epilogue

Lisa realizes that Marge's telling of the lives of Mozart and Salieri is clearly based upon the movie ''Amadeus''. She calls the movie completely inaccurate, explaining that Mozart worked hard on his music and that Salieri was a celebrated composer in his own time. Homer recalls that Tom Hulce starred both in ''Amadeus'' and in ''Animal House'', and he sings an inaccurate rendition of the ''Animal House'' theme over the epilogue.

The episode ends with a facetious epilogue followed by closing credits accompanied by Mozart's ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik'':

''Vint'' is a "virtual cameo" about "bureaucrats who lighten their day by playing a game of cards (vint) using the personal files in their care." An official hears his wife's name and "takes the sort of action one might least expect."

Makuta, the Master of Shadows, is still frozen in his crystal prison following the events of the previous film. A mysterious figure calls out his name, then scratches the prison and extracts a shard from it. This figure is later revealed to be Roodaka, the queen of the Visorak horde, and she is later shown infusing the shard into her chest as she vows to free Makuta from his prison.

Vakama, as a Turaga, continues in voice-over the story of the Toa Metru. Having combined their elemental powers to seal the Makuta in protodermis at the end of the previous film, the Toa left Metru Nui to find a home for the sleeping Matoran, vowing to return to the city to rescue those they were forced to leave behind. However, in their absence, the city became overrun by the 'stealers of life', the Visorak horde.

The Toa Metru (Vakama, Nokama, Matau, Onewa, Whenua, and Nuju) arrive on the shore of Metru Nui and proceed towards the Coliseum where the Matoran are being held, observing the damage that has been dealt to the city. They are soon ambushed and captured by a group of Visorak and taken to the Coliseum, where they are infused with the Visorak's venom and mutated into beast-like creatures. Having been ordered killed by Sidorak, king of the Visorak horde, the Toa are sent falling to their deaths. They are saved by six flying beings who later introduce themselves as Rahaga, led by Norik.

Norik explains that the Visorak venom has transformed the Toa into Hordika, making them more susceptible to their bestial natures. As they will remain Hordika forever if the venom is not neutralized in time, their only hope of changing back lies in an ancient hermit-like Rahi named Keetongu, who is considered by many to be a myth. Vakama grows angry over continually being blamed for the Toa's current situation and storms off, choosing to try and save the Matoran alone. However, he is cornered by Visorak and once again taken to the Coliseum. Roodaka takes advantage of Vakama's current state of mind by offering him a proposal: if he commands the Visorak horde, he can rule Metru Nui. With his Hordika instinct overpowering his rational mind, Vakama accepts her offer.

The other Toa, along with the Rahaga, go to the Great Temple in the Ga-Metru district to search for clues to Keetongu's whereabouts. Vakama ambushes the Rahaga during the night, capturing five of them and leaving behind a badly injured Norik as a warning. He takes them to Sidorak, who grants Vakama a place as the general of the Visorak horde. Norik later informs the Toa of what Vakama has done, reiterating that they must find Keetongu before the Toa are completely consumed by their bestial states as Vakama has apparently been. Using inscriptions translated before the attack, the group follows a trail that leads them to Keetongu's lair at the top of the Ko-Metru district. Though reluctant at first, Keetongu eventually agrees to aid them.

The Toa return to the Coliseum and engage the Visorak. Matau confronts Vakama alone, while Keetongu goes after the king and queen. Roodaka orchestrates the death of Sidorak by leaving him to be killed by Keetongu. Matau tries to reason with Vakama as they fight each other; he apologizes for previously doubting Vakama's leadership and reminds Vakama of his duty as a Toa and his destiny to rescue the Matoran, eventually prompting Vakama to return to his senses.

Norik frees his fellow Rahaga and joins the Toa, but Roodaka arrives and demands control over the Toa's elemental powers. Vakama and Matau rejoin the rest of the team, with Vakama feigning continued allegiance to Roodaka. After the other five Toa unsuccessfully attempt to defeat Roodaka by firing their elemental spinner weapons at her, Vakama reveals his change of heart and orders the Visorak to leave and be free; having been placed under his command, the horde obeys. Vakama then proceeds to fire his own spinner at Roodaka, incapacitating her and destroying her heartstone which she had previously carved from the Makuta's crystal prison. The stone's destruction causes Makuta's prison to break and free him, and Makuta then uses his powers to teleport Roodaka to safety. Fully aware that his actions have freed the Master of Shadows, Vakama is nevertheless confident that they can stop him again. After Keetongu returns the Hordika to their Toa Metru forms, the Toa bid farewell to him and the Rahaga and depart Metru Nui with the comatose Matoran.

Following the events of the first film, Turaga Vakama concludes the story of the Toa Metru that he had been recounting to Takanuva, Jaller, and Hahli. As they leave, Vakama tells them that it is time for them to find their own destiny.

In the near future (some unspecified decades after 1999), Professor Dr. Amadeus Sharp Ph.D., head of the Special Projects Labs (SPL), creates a new form of technology to augment humans through bionics. His first subject was Jack Bennett, a test pilot who secretly acted as Sharp's field agent, Bionic-1. On a family ski vacation in the Himalayas, an alien spacecraft triggers an avalanche that buries the entire family, exposing them to the unusual radiation of a mysterious buried object. Jack frees himself but discovers his family in a comatose state. Theorizing that Jack's bionics protected him from the radiation, Professor Sharp implants bionic technology in the others, awakening them. Afterward, the family operates incognito as a publicly lauded team of adventuring superheroes, the Bionic Six.

The primary villain of the series is a mad scientist known as Doctor Scarab, along with his gang of henchmen Glove, Madam-O, Chopper, Mechanic, and Klunk accompanied by Scarab's legion of drone robots called Cyphrons. Scarab is Professor Sharp's brother. Obsessed with obtaining immortality and ruling the world, Scarab believes that the key to both goals lies in the secret bionic technology invented by his brother, ever plotting to possess it.

Homer, Bart, and Lisa see the newest ''Cosmic Wars'' film, ''The Gathering Shadow'', and the movie turns out to be less than what they expected. At home, Marge suggests that Bart and Lisa write a letter to ''Cosmic Wars'' creator Randall Curtis. Two weeks later, they get a reply from Curtis, which completely ignores their criticism, having sent them Jim-Jam merchandise. This forces the Simpsons to go on a trip to California, where Homer and Marge go to wineries, and Bart and Lisa go to the Cosmic Wars Ranch. The kids visit Curtis, and tell him that his ''Cosmic Wars'' movies have lost their way. Curtis dismisses their criticisms, until Lisa explains that improved technology does not count for story and characterization. Curtis agrees, and decides to go back to his storytelling roots by watching more samurai films and Westerns for inspiration.

Bart and Lisa rejoin Homer and Marge, who are both drunk from free samples of the wine. Back in Springfield, Homer and Marge go to Moe's Tavern and drink more wine. Moe opens a bottle of Château Latour 1886 vintage wine, clearly unaware of its value. Homer and Marge then continue to drink heavily for several days, until Marge suffers a particularly painful hangover. She tells Homer that they should not be drinking, and he agrees. Unfortunately, when they go to an Oktoberfest featuring Grammy-winning nuclear polka band Brave Combo, Marge, who tries to go through the night without drinking, gives in and ends up drunk along with Homer. He tries to drive them home, but in a drunken stupor overturns the car.

In order to avoid an arrest, Homer makes things look like Marge (who is drunker than he is) was the driver. She is arrested, but he bails her out. Later, Barney suggests that Marge go to a rehab clinic for a month, and when Marge is gone, Homer lets Flanders take care of the kids. When he sees her at the clinic, he confesses, but Marge is angry and drinks again. Later on, the other rehab patients help her discover that she likes being with Homer more than she likes drinking, and forgives him and returns home (but not before Homer cries out in misery that the 'bible' he uses to hide his alcohol has been replaced by a real one).

Mr. Burns withdraws a $1000 bill from an ATM, but he drops it and an updraft carries it away to the Simpsons' house, where it is found by Bart and Milhouse. Marge makes Bart and Homer put up fliers so that the person who lost the bill can reclaim it. No one can describe it correctly so Lisa suggests that they spend the money on something for Marge. Marge desires a dream vacation, but decides against this because Homer always manages to ruin any trip they go on. After realizing he can make money from the bill, Bart displays it in a museum in his tree house. Mr. Burns visits and reclaims his money, forcing Bart to close his museum. However, Bart has made over $3000 from the museum so he reconsiders Lisa's suggestion and decides to spend the money on a vacation for Marge. Grampa suggests they go to Britain, where he hopes to meet his long-lost love Edwina. During World War II, he made love to her the night before he was shipped out to the front lines on D-Day (having been unaware that he actually was).

Upon their arrival in London the family is greeted by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, whom Homer mistakes for Mr. Bean. They visit London's tourist attractions, and later meet J. K. Rowling and Ian McKellen. Grampa tries to contact Edwina whilst Bart and Lisa go on a "sugar rush" after discovering the joys of British candy. Homer and Marge rent a Mini Cooper and start to drive around London but get stuck on the roundabout at Hyde Park Corner. After literally driving in circles for hours, Homer decides to break out of it, plows straight through the gates of Buckingham Palace and slams into Queen Elizabeth II's horse-drawn carriage, and is beaten by the Foot Guards.

At the Old Bailey, Homer is put on trial for causing harm to the Queen as well as wrecking her carriage. Representing himself (which Marge assumed would have made no difference), he humiliates himself by calling the Queen an impostor, since her luggage is inscribed "H.R.H." which he believes is short for "Henrietta R. Hippo", and mistaking the judge for a woman due to the wig he is wearing. The Queen, highly offended, demands that he be executed. At the Tower of London where he awaits his execution, he is called from outside by his family and Lisa tells him that he can use a secret tunnel that Sir Walter Raleigh built to escape. However, the tunnel leads straight into the Queen's bedroom, and she calls her guards. Homer pleads with the Queen to find it in her heart to forgive him and she allows him to leave the country on the condition that he and the rest of his family take Madonna back to America with him. As they prepare to leave, Edwina appears and introduces Abe to her daughter Abbey, who is essentially a British female version of Homer. Realizing he is her father, Grampa runs away quickly to the plane, while Homer appears smitten by his half-sister.

While browsing through the family photo album, Lisa notices it contains no baby pictures of Maggie. Homer explains why by recounting the story of Maggie's birth.

In 1993, Homer hated his job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and dreamed of working at a bowling alley. After receiving a paycheck clearing him of all his debts, he quit his job at the power plant, humiliating Mr. Burns and (literally) burning a bridge during his departure. Homer was thrilled with his new job at Barney's Uncle Al's bowling alley.

When Homer and Marge "snuggled" to celebrate his new job, she became pregnant. Marge made Patty and Selma promise not to tell him, but they told two people known for gossiping. By the next day the entire city of Springfield knew Marge was pregnant. Homer was blind to obvious signs, even when Moe congratulated him for getting Marge pregnant and her friends and family threw her a baby shower. When Maude casually congratulated him on his new job, Homer suddenly realized Marge was pregnant. The news upset him because he was happier working at the bowling alley than any other job.

Marge urged Homer to ask Al for a raise. Al explained the alley's profits prevented him from offering one unless Homer could find a way to increase business threefold. Homer tried to attract more customers by firing a shotgun outside the bowling alley, which only caused a massive panic and large police response. Unable to drum up business, Homer quit his dream job and returned to the power plant. Mr. Burns made Homer beg for his job back and placed a large plaque near his desk which read: "Don't forget: you're here forever". Homer was miserable at work again, but he instantly fell in love with Maggie when she was born.

Back in the present, Bart and Lisa still do not understand what this story has to do with Maggie's missing baby pictures. Homer says the photos are where he needs them most — on the plaque, which he has altered to read: "Do it for her".

After Marge complains about the family spending their weekends idly at home, Homer drags her to a police seized-property auction. While there, he buys Snake's car, the Li'l Bandit. Upon seeing this, Snake vows to kill Homer. After the auction, insisting on walking home rather than ride in Homer's new dangerous hotrod, Marge encounters Lionel Hutz, who has become a realtor. Marge decides to try the job for herself and begins to work for Hutz at Red Blazer Realty. She tells prospective buyers her honest opinion about the houses she shows them, which prevents her from selling any homes. Hutz informs her to use more positive descriptions when selling the houses, and also informs Marge if she does not sell a house in the first week, she will be fired. Marge tries to bend the truth but fails as she just cannot lie to others. Marge does not disclose the entire truth of the house she sells to Ned Flanders and his family, which had been the site of a multiple homicide, a property which Red Blazer Realty had hitherto been unable to sell. The Flanders purchase the house and bid farewell to the Simpsons.

Meanwhile, Snake escapes from the prison and jumps into the Li'l Bandit to retrieve the car from Homer. They start fighting each other to gain control of the moving car, and Chief Wiggum starts chasing them.

Feeling guilty about her deception and concerned for the Flanders' safety, Marge goes to check on them at their new house. There, she tells them the truth about the murders, but they are not upset. Ned and Maude are pleased to be a part of Springfield's history, and refuse Marge's offer of returning the deposit. However, the house is destroyed seconds later when Li'l Bandit and Wiggum's police car crash through the house. Marge returns Ned's down payment. Hutz, furious at the destruction costs and especially by the return of the money, fires Marge (giving her a Red Blazer embroidered with this information). At the end of the episode, Homer takes Marge to the government unemployment office to collect a welfare check.

In 1998 New York City, quadriplegic forensics expert Lincoln Rhyme is bed-bound after an accident that left him completely paralyzed from the neck down. Amelia Donaghy, a newly recruited patrol officer, discovers a mutilated corpse buried at a Civil War-era railroad bed. Due to clue-like objects found at the crime scene, Rhyme concludes that the scene was staged and subsequently teams up with an initially hesitant Amelia, impressed by her natural forensic instincts.

The killer poses as a taxi driver and, prior to Rhyme and Amelia meeting, abducts married couple Alan and Lindsay Rubin. Alan is the body discovered by Amelia at the railroad station, while Lindsay is revealed to be alive and tied up at a steam junction. Using the clues found at the railroad bed, including a torn piece of scrap paper, Rhyme successfully tracks the whereabouts of Lindsay. The detectives and Amelia arrive too late and she is scalded to death by an open steam pipe. Amelia finds a piece of Lindsay's bone by her body and another scrap of paper. Rhyme instructs Amelia to sever Lindsay's hands, which are securely chained to the pipe, for evidence but she refuses and storms off from the crime scene.

The killer abducts an NYU student, who is taken to a derelict slaughterhouse and tied to a pole. The killer surgically removes a piece of bone from the student, leaving an open wound that attracts nearby rats. Amelia and Rhyme, again using the clues left by the killer at the scene of the previous murder, find the victim's body which has been mutilated by rats. Amelia finds another scrap of paper and a piece of bone. The pressure of the tense investigation and bureaucratic challenges to Amelia and Rhyme's involvement in the case begin to have serious impacts on Rhyme's health and stability. Thelma, Rhyme's personal carer and nurse, reveals to Amelia that he intends to euthanise himself out of fear of seizures that could leave him in a vegetative state.

After piecing together the message the killer was sending using the scrap paper left at each scene, Amelia and Rhyme are led to an old crime novel called ''The Bone Collector'', where it is revealed the killer is replicating the crimes from the fictional story. This leads them to the killer's next victims, a grandfather and granddaughter who have been tied to a pier during a rise in tide. The paramedics successfully resuscitate the young girl, but the grandfather is pronounced dead. At the scene, Amelia finds another piece of bone, part of an old police badge, and a subway map. These clues together with the asbestos left by the killer at the scene of Lindsay's death lead Amelia to an abandoned subway station, where she sees numbers on the side of a carriage that have been tampered with to spell out Rhyme's police badge number.

The killer arrives at Rhyme's house and kills both Thelma and police Captain Howard Cheney. The killer is revealed to be Richard Thompson, the medical technician in charge of Rhyme's medical equipment. Richard's real name is Marcus Andrews, a former forensics expert, who was convicted after Rhyme wrote an article accusing him of planting evidence resulting in the wrongful imprisonment of six innocent people, one of whom hanged himself. Blaming Rhyme for his imprisonment and the abuse he endured during his incarceration, he attempts to kill Rhyme out of revenge. Rhyme retaliates by crushing Marcus' hand in his medical bed, resulting in a struggle between the two that forces them both onto the floor. Unable to move, Rhyme is almost killed by Marcus until Amelia arrives and shoots Marcus dead.

The following Christmas, Rhyme, having abandoned his plans to commit suicide, meets his sister and niece coming to visit him along with Amelia and his other colleagues.

Comic version

After human civilization were destroyed and rebuilt for several times, the world was now a place where three floating continents: Yulgaha, Yanuess, and Urt, move slowly through the sky. People living on the ground referred those floating lands as "Ëdens". Yorn, a boy born to Yoniha the Foreseeing Maiden on Yulgaha, was separated from his mother and brought to live on the surface when he was five years old. He was then adopted by Gastini, a former swordsman now a farmer, and raised along with Gastini's three sons: Moes, Miel, and their younger brother.

Ten years later, Yulgaha sent Witto and Hairra to investigate Yorn, as the boy who turned out to be a "God Killer". They met a mysterious swordsman, later known as "Old Man" (''Oyaji'') by Yorn, and headed to Gastini's farm. Meanwhile, Yorn encountered Elisiss, a mysterious girl who fell from the sky, and hid her in his workshop.

A while later, Yorn had a physical fight with Moes and Miel. The fight ended up both Yorn and Miel hurt while Moes ran away. Both Yorn and Miel were healed by Elisiss, while Moes were killed by Hairra and transformed into a puppet. Hairra and Witto's Claymen then attacked on Gastini's house, killing him.

Upon returning home, Yorn and Miel were attacked by Hairra and Claymen. Yorn's sword was broken by a Clayman, but Elisiss managed to fix and upgrade the sword. After defeating Claymen with his sword, Yorn had to battle Old Man. When observing the battle, Hairra recognized the Old Man was in fact Ulgar Dyne, a swordsman who won his place to live in Yulgaha but escaped years ago, and decided to kill both Yorn and Ulgar. Seeda, another mysterious girl, intervened and saved them both. Seeda and Ulgar managed defeated Hairra and reanimated Moes respectively before Hairra escaped.

After the battle, Seeda told Yorn had to begin a journey. Before leaving, Yorn learned from Ulgar that there was a tournament, which held every ten years and granted the champion to live in Ëdens. In order to return to Yulgaha and reunite with his mother, Yorn decided to fight in the tournament, which would be held three years later, while Ulgar agreed to train him during the journey.<!--

Part 2

In the last chapter of Part 1, Yulgaha disappeared after it was sucked into a different dimension. Meanwhile, when trying to save Elisiss, Yorn encountered Spike, another God Killer who referred Yorn as elder brother. In an ensuing fight, Yorn was defeated by Spike, while Elisiss was taken away by her father, the Lord of all gods.

Three years later, Yorn, now trained as a more skill fighter than he was, enter the tournament with Ulgar and Witto as a team.

====Part 3====-->

Anime version

The story is set in a world where two floating islands named Yulgaha and Yanuess slowly move through the sky. The people on the ground named these islands "Ëdens", and they control all the land. A boy, Yorn, was born on Yulgaha, but in his infancy, he was separated from his mother and brought to live on the surface. Although the foster father that raised him was poor, Yorn grew into a bright, chipper young man.

One day, Yorn is attacked by Hairra, a woman who is later revealed to be a puppet from Yulgaha, while he is forging a sword. When she breaks the sword and attempts to kill him, his father sacrifices himself to save Yorn. Hairra proceeds to incapacitate Yorn, but is prevented from killing him by the arrival of a mysterious young girl. The girl picks up the hilt of Yorn's sword and drives it into her hand, magically transforming it into the sword of the God hunter.

Hairra attempts to kill her, but she transforms into a young woman armed with a staff (Seeda) and fights back. During this battle, Yorn's powers as a God-Hunter are awakened by the sword and he enters the battle. Using a massive energy blast emanating from the sword, he drives off Hairra and her brother. During the interim, the mysterious girl disappears. She rejoins him later when both are caught by the Chosen of Yulgaha for drinking from a desert oasis that was sacred to Yulgaha, and after a series of events they and the old man Yorn met after the conflict with Hairra set off for Rubeet.

They come to a village that is being attacked by a white leopard. The young girl wanders off into the forest after a dance that told the story of the God Hunter. Searching for her, Yorn, the old man and some of the villagers go into the forest to search for her. They find her (caught in a trap that had been meant for the leopard), but shortly after that the white leopard attacks. It attacks the village chief but is driven off by the old man. It finds Yorn and the young girl, but does not attack. The young girl follows it, and when Yorn gets back the strength to search for her, he overhears her talking to someone. As he follows the voice of the girl to its source, he finds her name is Elisiss. When he finds her, it turns out that she had been talking to the leopard. He puts himself between the two, but Elisiss then puts herself between him and the leopard, protecting it. Shortly after that, the leopard is attacked by someone who looks similar to Yorn. Elisiss again interposes herself between the leopard and its assailant, but he is only stopped when Yorn parries his blade. He is stronger than Yorn, however, and knocks his sword out of his hands and to the ground. He spares Yorn however, and introduces himself as Spike Randit, another God Hunter, before leaving.

While Yorn is trying reconcile the fact that he is a God Hunter with himself, not quite able to believe it, Elisiss licks his wound. This somehow heals it, and prompts a bit of teasing from the old man. Afterwards, when the talk turns to the white leopard, Elisiss tells them it is her sister and will not be seen in the forest again.

They then leave to continue their journey.

The innocent owner of a van that is unsuspectingly used in a back-room bookie operation robbery is "railroaded" (informal, refers to the conviction of someone based on false or weak evidence without proper corroboration) for the killing of a cop during the getaway.

Clara Calhoun is a beautician with a shop in New York. Her shop is in fact a front for a bookmaking operation. One evening when she closes up for the night, she gives a silent signal to two masked gunmen lurking outside. These two bandits then burst into the shop and hold up both Calhoun and her unsuspecting assistant, Marie Westin. The money they steal is betting money from the illegal operation.

During the robbery, a policeman on patrol in the neighborhood hears Westin's screams. He sees the hold up and tries to interrupt the robbery. As the policeman intervenes, he shoots one of the robbers, "Cowie" Kowalski, but is then shot and killed by the other robber, Duke Martin. The two robbers then escape the scene in a laundry truck, and Martin drops off Kowalski at a doctor's house for medical care. Before leaving Martin reminds Kowalski of the plan to implicate a certain Steve Ryan in the crime.

Later on, Calhoun and Westin are interrogated by detectives Mickey Ferguson and Jim Chubb. Westin describes both robbers as black-haired, but Calhoun insists that one of them, the "shooter", had sandy hair. Calhoun's version is believed, and soon the sandy-haired Steve Ryan, who usually drives the laundry truck and whose Navy scarf was found at the shop, is found and brought in for questioning. After a round of tough questioning by Ferguson and Chubb, Steve Ryan is then taken to a hospital, where Kowalski identifies him as the killer.

Steve Ryan claims that he is being framed by Kowalski for something he didn't do. He says the reason for this is that he beat up Kowalski for making a pass at his sister Rosie Ryan. But the detectives don't believe his story. Calhoun too confirms Kowalski's identification, and the unfortunate Steve Ryan is arrested. His sister Rosie Ryan is sure of her brother's innocence.

Rosie Ryan pleads her brother's case to detective Ferguson, but he is quite convinced of Steve Ryan's guilt and intends to perform a thorough investigation. Calhoun, who has come up with the robbery scheme together with Martin, and who in fact is her boyfriend, starts drinking heavily, angering Martin in the process.

When it turns out Kowalski dies from his gunshot wound, Rosie Ryan goes over to Calhoun's apartment and confronts her about her identification. A fight ensues between the two women. Martin watches the fight while hiding, and afterwards he enters the room and tells Calhoun he will "straighten out" Westin before Rosie Ryan talks with her. Martin also tells Calhoun that she should lay low and disappear for a while, until Steve Martin's trial. Rosie Ryan goes straight to Westin's beauty shop, but is unable to find her. Also looking for Westin is Ferguson, and he finds her outside the shop and offers her a ride home. Rosie Ryan accepts the ride, and on the way, Ferguson confesses his doubts about Steve Ryan's guilt.

Back at home, Rosie Ryan receives a message from Martin, telling her to come to the Club Bombay, which he manages. Rosie Ryan goes to meet Martin at the club, and in the meantime Ferguson breaks into and inspects Calhoun's now-deserted apartment. He finds a lead in a photograph of Martin, which connects the two. Since Ferguson has had dealings with Martin before, he recognizes the photo and goes to the club to question Martin about his relation to Calhoun.

Martin suggests to Rosie Ryan that he knows who is framing Steve Ryan, and Rosie Ryan denounces Ferguson in front of Martin. Ferguson doesn't give up though, concernedly warning Rosie Ryan to stay away from Martin. However, Rosie Ryan is determined to do anything to get her brother off the hook, and puts more trust in Martin. Martin reveals to Calhoun his intent to rob Jacklin Ainsworth, Calhoun's gambling boss and the owner of Club Bombay. In an attempt to discover the relation between Calhoun and Martin, Ferguson waits outside Calhoun's hideout apartment. When Martin appears and is about to enter the building, Ferguson makes his presence known to him.

Martin tries to get out of the compromising situation by accusing Calhoun of double-crossing him. He then runs off, and Ferguson goes inside to speak with her. Ferguson tells her that Westin has been found dead in the river. Because of this, he advises Calhoun to call him later at Rosie Ryan's house for her own protection. Meanwhile Martin finds another solution to his problem, by convincing an alcoholic named Wino to confess to the robbery in exchange for a sum of money. He then talks to Rosie Ryan and assures her that Wino's statements will get Steve Ryan out of jail.

Rosie Ryan buys the whole concept and goes home to get money for Wino. Martin goes back to Calhoun's apartment, but she isn't there. He discovers the frightened Calhoun calling Ferguson from a drugstore. Calhoun arranges to meet Ferguson at her apartment, but before the detective arrives Martin shoots her down. Martin then goes to Club Bombay, where he shoots and robs Ainsworth. Aware that Calhoun had called Rosie Ryan's phone number, Martin waits for her at the club and accuses her of betraying him.

Just when Martin is about to shoot Rosie Ryan too, Ferguson arrives with the police, having ordered a raid on the club. In the ensuing commotion, Martin manages to fire at Rosie and wound her, but not fatally. Martin is then killed in a shootout with Ferguson. Steve Ryan is eventually released from jail, and Ferguson and Rosie Ryan kiss each other.

Jolly Chronolidays is offering sight-seeing tours of the "Sector of Forgotten Souls", the place where in ancient times the Time Lord Omega detonated a star that enabled the Time Lords the power to travel through time, and was lost. When the Fifth Doctor arrives, he discovers that Omega might not be as lost as was thought.

A tax investigator chasing a tax evader stumbles upon a series of bloody murders and gets wrapped up in an investigation with a rookie cop despite his boss' orders to stay out of the way.

Buffy is waiting for a vampire to rise when she falls into an open grave. A body was apparently dragged out from it earlier.

The next day, Buffy and Xander catch Giles practicing to ask Jenny Calendar out on a date. Giles hears Buffy's findings at the cemetery and fears someone is raising an army of zombies. Buffy goes to find Willow, who is signing up for the science fair and talking to Chris, the reigning champ. As Buffy approaches, Chris' friend Eric takes pictures of girls passing by.

Willow finds that the girl missing from the open grave, Meredith Todd, died in a car accident. That night, Cordelia is walking to her car when she senses that someone is following her. She hides in a dumpster and when she thinks it is safe to get out, she encounters Angel. He starts to help her out when she picks up a girl’s hand, and they find other body parts inside the dumpster. The Scoobies return to the library to find a frightened Cordelia clinging to Angel. They decide to abandon Giles' zombie theory and search the lockers of science students. They find medical books and an article on Meredith in Chris's locker and a jigsaw of female body parts in Eric's locker.

In a secret lab, Chris and Eric are almost finished assembling a girl's body, except for the head. Eric lines up three candidates: Buffy, Willow and Cordelia. Chris' brother Daryl comes out from the shadows, showing a grotesque appearance, and chooses Cordelia. Daryl was a popular athlete who died in a hiking accident years ago, but he was revived by his brother and promised a stay-at-home companion.

The next day, Giles stumbles as he tries to ask Jenny out, but she ends up asking him to the football game instead. Meanwhile, Buffy and her friends discover that Chris and Eric must actually kill a girl to gain the head they need.

Buffy finds a lab in Chris's house and discovers their target is Cordelia. In the locker room, Cordelia is getting ready when Chris comes up behind her. Eric places a bag over her head, but is fought off by Buffy. After Cordelia leaves, Chris tells Buffy about Daryl. They head back to his house, only to find Daryl gone.

Daryl drags her away. He and Eric head to an abandoned building, where Eric plans to behead her. At the game, Buffy and Chris realize they arrived too late, but Chris tells her where to find Eric.

Meanwhile, Willow and Xander crash Giles and Jenny’s date. Chris tells them what happened, while Buffy rushes to the old science lab. In the ensuing fight, a burner is knocked over and starts a fire. Xander arrives with the rest of the gang and gets Cordelia out. Giles and Willow drag out an unconscious Eric. As Daryl is about to kill Buffy, Chris stops him. Daryl decides to die beside the unfinished girl's body while everyone else escapes.

A girl jumps out of a second-floor window of a frat house and flees into a cemetery, where she is caught. Meanwhile, The Scooby Gang are happy with the apparent lack of activity on the Hellmouth. Giles presses Buffy to train harder, but she just wants to be a teenager. The next day at school, Cordelia introduces her to two college guys, one of whom invites Buffy to a party. She turns him down, claiming she is involved with someone. Buffy goes on patrol at the cemetery and meets Angel, who smells blood on a bracelet on the ground. He says that their age difference is a problem and that she does not know what she wants in life. She runs off, upset.

Buffy decides to go to the frat party with Cordelia without telling Giles or Angel. Later that night, Giles and Willow discover that the bracelet is from Kent Preparatory School, just outside Sunnydale and where Buffy is partying. Angel appears and asks about Buffy. Willow tells the two men why Buffy lied to them. They then rush off to save Buffy and Cordelia.

At the party, Buffy tries to avoid drunken frat guys. Xander sneaks in to protect Buffy, but other drunken party-goers recognize him as a crasher and dress him up like a girl. After she relents and accepts a drink. a drugged Buffy stumbles her way up to the bedroom where Cordelia is lying unconscious. When they wake up, they find themselves chained in a basement with the girl caught in the beginning as an offering for a reptile demon named Machida, whom the fraternity – calling themselves the Delta-Zeta-Kappas – worship. Cordelia is chosen as the first victim, but Buffy distracts the demon and breaks out of her chains.

Willow, Angel and Giles head to the frat party and meet up with Xander. They enter the house and beat up the frat guys. Buffy kills the demon, the frat guys are arrested, and Giles promises to stop pushing Buffy so hard. Afterwards, everyone gathers at The Bronze. Xander reads from a newspaper that the frat guys were given life sentences and their family's businesses – and others set up by previous Delta-Zeta-Kappas – are experiencing falling profits, IRS investigations and "suicides in the boardroom" due to the demon's death. Angel appears and asks Buffy out on a coffee date, which she accepts.

The Amulet

At the beginning of this book, the journalist father of Robert, Anthea, Cyril, and Jane has gone overseas to cover the war in Manchuria. Their mother has gone to Madeira to recuperate from an illness, taking with her their younger brother, the Lamb. The children are living with an old Nurse (Mrs Green) who has set up a boarding house in central London. Her only other boarder is a scholarly Egyptologist who has filled his bedsit with ancient artefacts. During the course of the book, the children get to know the "poor learned gentleman" and befriend him and call him Jimmy.

Nurse's house is in Fitzrovia, the district of London near the British Museum, which Nesbit accurately conveys as having bookstalls and shops filled with unusual merchandise. In one of these shops the children find the Psammead. It had been captured by a trapper, who failed to recognise it as a magical being. The terrified creature cannot escape, for it can only grant wishes to others, not to itself. Using a ruse, the children persuade the shopkeeper to sell them the "mangy old monkey", and they free their old friend.

Guided by the Psammead, the children purchase an ancient amulet in the shape of an Egyptian Tyet (a small amulet of very similar shape to the picture can be seen in the British Museum today) which should be able to grant them their hearts' desire: the safe return of their parents and baby brother. But this amulet is only half of an original whole. By itself, it cannot grant their hearts' desire. Yet it can serve as a portal, enabling time travel to find the other half.

In the course of the novel the Amulet transports the children and the Psammead to times and places where the Amulet has previously existed, in the hope that – at some point in time – the children can find the Amulet's missing half. Among the ancient realms they visit are Babylon, Egypt, the Phoenician city of Tyre, a ship to "the Tin Islands" (ancient Cornwall), and Atlantis just before the flood. In one chapter, they meet Julius Caesar on the shores of Gaul, just as he has decided that Britain is not worth invading. Jane's childish prattling about the glories of England persuades Caesar to invade after all.

In each of their time-jaunts, the children are magically able to speak and comprehend the contemporary language. Nesbit acknowledges this in her narration, without offering any explanation. The children eventually bring "Jimmy" (the "Learned Gentleman") along with them on some of their time trips. For some reason, Jimmy does not share the children's magical gift of fluency in the local language: he can only understand (for example) Latin based on his own studies.

In one chapter the children also come to the future, visiting a British utopia in which H.G. Wells is venerated as a reformer. Wells and Nesbit were both members of the Fabian political movement, as was George Bernard Shaw, and this chapter in ''The Story of the Amulet'' is essentially different from all the other trips in the narrative: whereas all the other adventures in this novel contain scrupulously detailed accounts of past civilisations, the children's trip into the future represents Nesbit's vision of Utopia. This episode can be compared to many other visions of utopian socialist futures published in that era; Nesbit's is notable in that it concentrates on how the life of children at school would be radically different, with economic changes only appearing briefly in the background. (It seems somewhat akin to William Morris's ''News from Nowhere''.) It also mentions a pressing danger of Edwardian England: the number of children wounded, burned, and killed each year. (This concern was addressed in the Children Act 1908, and later in the Children's Charter.)

A man is hurriedly making his way through the school grounds trying to find Giles, when he is approached by a decomposing woman, "Dierdre". As Giles is distracted by Buffy playing loud music in the library while doing calisthenics, he does not hear the man's cries for help at the door as the corpse strangles him, before falling to the ground and dissolving.

The next day, Giles tells Buffy to meet him later at the hospital where there will be a blood delivery, which attracts vampires. When Giles gets back to the library, a detective is waiting for him who informs Giles that there was a homicide on campus and the dead man had Giles' address on him. Giles identifies the body as an old friend from London, Philip Henry. The body has a tattoo, which Giles claims he does not recognize.

Shaken, Giles begins drinking in his grief and does not meet Buffy at the hospital, and she battles the doctor-dressed vampires alone until Angel shows up. She goes to check on Giles, but he shuts the door on her and calls another friend in London and finds out that his other friend Dierdre Page is dead too. Out of sight, he rolls up his sleeves, revealing that he has the same tattoo as Philip. Meanwhile, Philip comes back to life in the morgue, his eyes flashing, and escapes.

On Saturday, Cordelia finally tells Buffy about the homicide detective's visit. In the library, Buffy finds Giles' former friend Ethan, the costume shop owner who had caused chaos on Halloween. As she calls Giles, Ethan mentions the "Mark of Eyghon". Giles says she is in danger, and the dead Philip enters.

A panicked Giles shows up and, after a scuffle which leaves Jenny unconscious, Philip dissolves. When Jenny comes to, she seems normal but her eyes flash. Willow discovers the "Mark of Eyghon" in a book: the demon Eyghon has the ability to possess the body of a dead or unconscious host. They figure out that the demon has jumped from Philip's body to Jenny's. Possessed, Jenny tries to seduce Giles at his apartment. When Buffy comes to the rescue, Jenny jumps out the window. Giles explains to Buffy that he ran with a bad crowd when he was young, and they used the demon Eyghon as a temporary high – directing him in and out of each other's bodies. But one friend died, then Dierdre, and now it seems the rest of the group is being killed.

Buffy goes to the deserted costume shop to try to defend Ethan against Eyghon/Jenny. Ethan knocks her out, ties her up and puts the mark of Eyghon on her. He then uses acid to remove his own tattoo so that Eyghon will take Buffy instead of him. Jenny enters, completely demonic, and Buffy breaks free. Angel arrives and chokes Jenny until she loses consciousness, whereupon Eyghon moves to the nearest dead body: that of Angel. The two demons, the vampire within and Eyghon, fight for control in Angel's body, and Eyghon is destroyed. Jenny returns to normal, but Ethan escapes. Traumatized by her actions in the incident, Jenny tells Giles that she needs to take a break from their relationship in order to heal, leaving him unsure if she will ever forgive him.

during filming of ''Never the Twain''. Oliver Smallbridge, played by Windsor Davies, and Simon Peel, played by Donald Sinden, are antiques dealers who are also bitter enemies (after a falling-out having been business partners) and next-door neighbours, both in their homes and shops. They are engaged in a continuous game of one-upmanship, so both of them are shocked when they find out that their respective children (Smallbridge's daughter Lyn – played by Watson and later Kneale – and Peel's son David – played by Kermode and later Morris) are in love and want to marry as soon as possible. The fathers are forced to reluctantly accept the relationship and marriage, which takes place at the end of the first series.

It is the impending marriage of Lyn and David and the early days of their marriage, alongside Oliver and Simon battling over the affection of middle-class widow Veronica Barton (played by Blackman), that provides the basis for the first two series (both written entirely by Mortimer). The third series features a failed attempt by Simon and Oliver to try to renew their business partnership.

After the third series, Lyn and David move to Vancouver in Canada, leaving the daily goings on at Simon and Oliver's shops and in their private lives as the main themes of the show. Other notable characters in the series are Simon's butler Banks (played by Turner), a replacement for a foreign au pair that Simon had requested; Ringo (played by Deadman), Oliver's idiotic assistant in his shop; and Mrs. Sadler (played by Charles), Oliver's clumsy cleaner, who has an annoying tendency to accidentally break things. Banks and Mrs. Sadler's amorous relationship provides humorous material in these series, with both of them marrying and leaving the show at the end of the seventh series. The fourth to seventh series were written by a group of writers, Powell and ''Me and My Girl'' co-creator Kane being the most prominent.

In the eighth series (mostly written again by Mortimer), Lyn and David return from Canada with their son (and Oliver's and Simon's grandson) Martin, who provides a new platform on which Simon and Oliver can develop their long-standing rivalry, fighting over who is the better grandfather. However, at the end of that series, Lyn, David and Martin move to a new flat in Friern Barnet.

Simon and Oliver's daily personal and business lives are the primary focus of the final three series (all written in their entirety by Powell). In these series, another character (who had already made two appearances in series 4 and 7) begins to appear regularly: Simon's Aunt Eleanor (played by Nutley, who had also appeared in Vince Powell's earlier sitcom ''Mind Your Language''), moves near Oliver and Simon.

Also, appearing in some episodes of the series were Donald Sinden's sons Marc and Jeremy, while his wife Diana appeared in the last ever episode.

In the early 19th century, a lawyer explains to a group of young boys that a form of tontine has been organised; £1,000 has been invested for each child (£20,000 in total), but only the last survivor will receive all the capital and earned interest. Sixty-three years later, elderly brothers Masterman and Joseph Finsbury, who live next to each other in Victorian London, are the last surviving members of the tontine.

Masterman is attended by his unpromising medical student grandson Michael Finsbury, and, although Masterman has not talked to his despised brother in many years, he sends Michael next door to summon Joseph to see him. Michael is greeted by Julia, Joseph's granddaughter. They see each other often on the street and secretly admire each other. She explains Joseph is in Bournemouth with her cousins. Meanwhile, Julia's cousins, Morris and John, receive a telegram from Michael in their boarding house in Bournemouth, saying that Masterman is dying.

On the train trip to London, Joseph escapes from his grandson minders, entering a compartment and boring the sole occupant with a diatribe of trivial facts about the history of knitting. Joseph goes to smoke a cigarette, leaving behind his coat, which the occupant, "the Bournemouth Strangler", dons. The train then collides with another one. Morris and John find a mangled body wearing their uncle's coat and assume their uncle is dead. To protect their interest in the tontine, they hide the body in the woods. Morris tells John to crate the body up and post it to London. Meanwhile, Joseph wanders away from the accident scene.

In London, Michael gets a telegram telling him to expect a crate containing a statue. Morris arrives and mistakes the elderly butler, Peacock, for Masterman.

Morris decides to try to hide the body long enough for Masterman to die, and then claim Joseph died of a heart attack upon hearing the news. Morris and John plot to ship the body to Joseph's London home where Julia lives. John sends the body in a large barrel. Joseph makes his way to London on his own and visits his brother. Masterman makes several failed attempts to kill his brother, with Joseph oblivious to the attempts. They separate after quarrelling. Meanwhile, the barrel containing the body is delivered to Masterman's house by mistake, and Joseph is asked to sign for the barrel for "Mr Finsbury". Minutes later, the crate containing the statue, also addressed to "Mr Finsbury", which Michael is expecting, is mistakenly delivered to Joseph's house.

Morris, arriving at Joseph's house, sees a delivery wagon just leaving and assumes that his uncle's body has just been delivered. Morris then goes to Dr. Pratt to try to obtain a blank death certificate. Michael helps the delivery men move the crate into Joseph's house. This stirs the passions of both Julia and Michael and they kiss for the first time. Michael draws back and says they cannot do this because they are cousins; then they discover that they were both adopted orphans, thus unrelated by blood.

Michael discovers the body in the barrel and, after learning of the "altercation" between Masterman and Joseph from Peacock, assumes that his grandfather killed his brother. When Julia arrives with some broth for Masterman, Michael hides the body in a piano. That night, Michael hires "undertakers" to dump the corpse into the Thames, but when they arrive, Masterman has just fallen down the staircase, so they take his unconscious body. Seeing this, Morris gleefully assumes Masterman has died.

Morris and John go to claim the tontine, producing the fake death certificate. The lawyer tells them it is now worth £111,000.

Rescued from the river, Masterman is returned home by the Salvation Army, who assume he drowned himself. Julia orders a fancy coffin for him. Morris orders a cheap coffin to remove the mutilated body, but it is delivered to the wrong house, and Michael sells the piano, unaware the body is still in it. The police become involved when that body is discovered. Masterman sits up as the coffin is being taken away.

The cousins make off with the tontine money in a hearse. Michael and Julia chase Morris and John aboard another hearse. They then encounter a real funeral procession. After a confusing crash, Morris and John realise they have a body instead of the money. The tontine money is about to be buried when they grab it and run off. The box bursts open, and money is blown around the cemetery. Joseph pops up from the open grave just as Masterman arrives. The lawyer arrives to say the tontine has yet to be won. The police detective arrives, and Morris is arrested. They ask who put the body in the piano, as there is a £1000 reward for catching the Bournemouth Strangler. A new argument begins.

Homer and Bart rent the film ''Paint Your Wagon'', expecting it to be a shoot-em-up Western. Homer is dismayed to find out that it is actually a musical, and expresses his distaste for such films. Marge is baffled by this, saying that he ironically loves singing. The family starts delivering their dialogue in song form, and Marge decides to prove that Homer loves to sing by showing family videos. Several clips are shown of various songs from past episodes, but Homer is not convinced. At this moment, Snake breaks into their house and holds them hostage. However, once he hears them singing, Snake decides that they would not make good hostages and leaves.

The family continues to sing and more videos are shown. Snake again breaks into the house and claims that he got a song stuck in his head and the only way to get rid of it is to kill the Simpsons. He tries to shoot them but discovers that his gun is out of ammunition and leaves again.

After more clips, Snake returns for a final time, with ammunition, and aims his gun at them, but the family reveals that they are done singing. Snake declares that he has no problem with them and leaves. When Marge starts humming a tune, however, he fires a warning shot through the window.

During the closing credits, Snake, still annoyed by all the music, shoots at the orchestra as they try to play the show's theme song. The third and final time they try to play, it is at a very soft volume, but Snake is not fooled and proceeds to shoot again, and once more when the Gracie Films logo music plays.

Orfamay Quest asks Philip Marlowe to search for her older brother Orrin, who has recently come out to work in Bay City. Starting with Orrin's last known address, Marlowe finds the superintendent there in a drunken stupor; when awoken he tries to call a Dr. Lagardie before passing out again. Marlowe then finds a man who claims to be a retired optometrist living in Orrin's old room. On leaving the building, Marlowe discovers the superintendent stabbed in the neck with an ice pick and reports the murder to the local police.

When Marlowe returns to his office, he gets an anonymous call offering him an easy $100 job. When he enters the caller's room at the Van Nuys Hotel, a blonde knocks him out with one of her high heels. He comes round to finds the "retired optometrist" dead, also with an ice pick in his neck, and the room in disarray from a search. Marlowe remembers that the optometrist wears a toupée and finds a camera shop claim check hidden there. When he notifies the Los Angeles police of the murder, they recognize the victim as a minor player in organised crime.

Based on a tip from the hotel detective, Marlowe deduces that the woman in the hotel room was Mavis Weld, a rising movie star. He goes to her apartment, where he meets Dolores Gonzales, another minor star, who throws him out. After using the claim check to retrieve a set of photos of Weld and a reputed gangster named Steelgrave, Marlowe visits her agent and makes him understand that, far from trying to blackmail Weld, he may be able to help her.

Through his investigations, Marlowe learns that the photos were taken by Orrin, Orfamay's missing brother. He also finds out that Orrin is now working with a doctor named Lagardie who practices in Bay City. Marlowe confronts Lagardie, but as they talk he falls victim to a drugged cigarette. When he comes to, he finds Orrin trying to get into the room. Orrin has been shot and, with his last ounce of strength, tries to stab Marlowe with an ice pick. This confirms Marlowe's suspicion that Orrin committed the other murders.

Before calling the police, Marlowe tries to contact Orfamay to tell her of her brother's death. She informs him that she had found her brother and called the police after Marlowe left. Marlowe is now summoned to the station, where the police rough him up but, after an interview with the District attorney, he is released to "straighten things out" himself.

Dolores Gonzales calls Marlowe to say he must come to Steelgrave's home in the Hollywood Hills immediately, hinting that Mavis Weld's life is in danger. When Marlowe arrives, he finds Steelgrave has been killed with a gun of the same type that Mavis used to threaten Marlowe in the hotel room, and of the same calibre as the gun used to shoot Orrin. Weld confesses to Marlowe that she killed Steelgrave and is ready to turn herself in, but he convinces her to leave the gangster's home and then calls the police to report finding yet another body.

Although initially angry, the police are ultimately grateful to have the case resolved. After Weld goes to studio head Julius Oppenheimer, he hires lawyer Lee Farrell to defend her reputation. District Attorney Sewell Endicott summons Marlowe to a meeting with Farrell, Weld and himself and admits that the police do not have a convincing case against anybody. Back in his office, Marlowe is again visited by Orfamay. He confronts her with the truth that her real motive was to get money from Mavis Weld, who is her sister, and that it was she who told Steelgrave where to find Orrin.

Realising there is still one loose thread, Marlowe visits Dolores Gonzales at her apartment and she confesses to killing Steelgrave, her former lover. Marlowe realises that he cannot touch Dolores without destroying Mavis and her career and leaves, only to see Lagardie heading up to her room. Marlowe deduces that Lagardie was Dolores' former husband, but when he notifies the police where to locate him they find Lagardie has stabbed Dolores.

Writing as a narrator describing events from his own past, Beerbohm presents himself as a moderately successful young English essayist during the 1890s. He then relates the tragic history of an older colleague named Enoch Soames. The son of a bookseller from Preston, living off an inherited annuity, he is an utterly obscure, forgettable aspiring poet in the Decadent manner. Over the course of the story, he authors three unsuccessful books, of which Beerbohm provides parodies of his book of poems, "Fungoids". Soames’ appearance is described as “dim” and leaves little impression, except for his persistent habit of always wearing a particular grey waterproof cape and soft black hat.

On the afternoon of 3 June 1897, Soames and Beerbohm are having lunch in the Soho-based "Restaurant du Vingtieme Siecle". The self-obsessed Soames is deeply depressed, consumed with the belief that he is an unrecognised great author and, despite his complete failure so far, keenly curious about his "certain" posthumous fame. He therefore agrees to a contract offered by the Devil, who introduces himself from a neighbouring table. In exchange for the possession of his soul, Soames will be transported exactly 100 years forward in time to spend the rest of the afternoon in the British Museum Reading Room and discover what judgement posterity will make on himself and his works. After the allotted time has expired, Soames will be returned to their present date and location, but at the same time of evening as his departure from the future, and the Devil will then collect his payment.

Soames then vanishes and reappears in the café at the designated hour, where Beerbohm has returned to meet him. Soames’ description of the world of the future is vague and nondescript; while there he had focused primarily on his own concerns. He tells Beerbohm that the only mention he could find of himself was in a single scholarly article, of which Soames produces a facsimile-copy. It is printed in English, but in a phonetic spelling and with modified pronunciation, both of which had apparently evolved during the intervening century. The article discusses a "labud sattire" written by one Max Beerbohm "in wich e pautraid an immajnari karrakter kauld Enoch Soames — a thurd-rait poit hoo beleevz imself a grate jeneus an maix a bargin with th Devvl in auder ter no wot posterriti thinx ov im!" (in which he portrayed an imaginary character called Enoch Soames—a third-rate poet who believes himself a great genius and makes a bargain with the Devil to know what posterity thinks of him).

Beerbohm is shocked and denies that he would ever write such a thing. Before being taken to Hell, on the Devil’s return, Soames scornfully requests that Beerbohm at least try to make people believe that he, Soames, actually existed. Beerbohm’s narrative is that justification. He notes in particular that Soames mentioned that his presence in the reading room had caused a great stir, but "I assure you that in no period could Soames be anything but dim. The fact that people are going to stare at him, and follow him around, and seem afraid of him, can be explained only on the hypothesis that they will somehow have been prepared for his ghostly visitation. They will have been awfully waiting to see whether he really would come. And when he does come, the effect will of course be – awful."

In Sweden, Viking sires nine sons by a second wife. Thorsten (Thorstein, or Thor's Stone) is the oldest son of Viking. Viking befriends his worthy foe Njorfe, King of Upplands, in Norway, who also has nine sons. The two groups of sons are highly competitive against each other. In a brutal ball game, they beat and maim each other, breaking each other's arms. A son of Viking, near death, slays a son of Njorfe.

Viking scolds this son and sends him to an island in Lake Vänern. Two more sons go with him, including Thorsten. Viking tells Thorsten to wait quietly on the island until the danger is over. Njorfe's sons want revenge. They use magic to conjure a frost that freezes the lake and travel across it to attack the three sons of Viking. Two of Viking's sons survive: Thorsten and Thorer. Two of Njorfe's sons survive, including his eldest son, Jokul, a sorcerer. Njorfe's sons use magic to discover that Thorsten and Thorer are alive.

Viking sends his two sons to the court of Halfdan for safety. Jokul invades Sogn, kills the king, banishes the heir Beli, and places a curse on the king's daughter Ingeborg, causing her to take the shape of a hideous troll. Jokul stirs a tempest which shipwrecks Thorsten twice. Ingeborg (as a troll, under the name Skellinefja) rescues Thorsten and asks him to promise to marry her. With her help, Thorsten returns Beli to the throne of Sogn, and the curse leaves Ingeborg. Thorsten unites with Ingeborg. Fridthiof is their son.

Thorsten, Beli, and Angantyr retrieve Viking's stolen magic ship ''Ellida''. Thorsten fights Sote, a ghost pirate in barow mound, to get the magic ring (forged by Voland). Thorsten, Beli, and Angantyr conquer the Orkney Islands.

Thorsten and his son Frithiof inherit the magic sword Angurvadel and the magic ship ''Ellida'' from Viking. Descendants of Thorstein appear in ''Friðþjófs saga ins frœkna'', and in the Starkad section of ''Gautreks saga''.

The series follows the wavering relationship between two ex-lovers, Penny Warrender, a secretary for an advertising firm, and Vincent Pinner, an ex-ice cream salesman turned bookmaker who is the son of a wealthy scrap metal merchant. The couple (who first met in the summer of 1976 at a party hosted by an ex Roadie of the Rolling Stones) split up following Vincent's decision to jilt Penny on their wedding day in June 1978, leaving her at the altar. In the pilot episode, five years since their intended wedding day, the pair meet again by chance in a pub while out on individual dates. The pair decide to forget the past and become friends, although the rekindling of their relationship is not welcomed by Penny's snobbish parents, particularly her mother, Daphne, played by Sylvia Kay.

The 1984 90-minute Christmas special is a prequel to the series showing how Penny and Vince first met, loved and how Penny was jilted and married Graham. The last episode of the second series was intended to be the final episode, with Penny leaving for a job in Paris.

The cast reunited in 1986 for a final seven episodes, in which Penny and Vince meet up in Paris two years after they split up. Penny is now divorced and Vince is married; the couple renew their relationship and Vince, now a successful businessman, gives up everything for a quick divorce to pay off his wife Gina so he can be with Penny. In the final episode, Vince is still recovering from his painful divorce when his father pays a visit. Vince is told that unless he calls the wedding off, a lucrative wine export contract cannot be signed: Gina's way of blackmailing the Pinners by hitting where it hurts. Similarly, Penny is told that unless she calls the wedding off, her father's new job may not happen and at work, she is offered a permanent basing in Paris, all because Gina Marshall (Vince's ex) is too important a client to turn down. Eventually, she accepts the new posting but uses it to her advantage by returning to Paris and marrying Vince at the town hall.

A young woman named Lui admires her new boyfriend Ama's split tongue, which she likens to the forked tongue of a snake. Having experimented with large ear piercings, she decides that she wants to try the same body modification as Ama. Lui and Ama visit a bisexual body modification and tattoo artist named Shiba, who begins the process of inserting progressively larger tongue studs. Lui finds herself interested in Shiba, returns to the shop without Ama, and secretly begins a violent sexual relationship with Shiba involving bondage and sadomasochism.

While walking to a train station one night, Lui, Ama, and Lui's friend Maki are confronted in Shinjuku by two apparent gangsters, one of whom grabs Lui's breast while insulting her. Ama punches both men. After one of the men flees, Ama continues to beat Lui's attacker, using the heavy rings on his hand to knock out the gangster's teeth. Ama gives the teeth to Lui as a symbol of his love for her. Despite Ama's obvious affection, Lui feels disconnected from Ama and continues to have a sexual relationship with Shiba, who is creating an intricate tattoo that covers her entire back. Lui later sees a television news story about a gangster who was beaten to death in Shinjuku, and makes Ama change his appearance to avoid recognition by the police.

One day Ama unexpectedly disappears. His corpse is found with evidence of sexual torture, rape, and strangulation. After learning of Ama's demise, Lui tries to speed up the process of splitting her tongue by inserting larger studs too quickly, causing intense pain, and she stops eating, instead only drinking alcohol. She then discovers evidence suggesting that Shiba was Ama's rapist and murderer. Lui suspects a previous sexual relationship between Shiba and Ama, but when the police investigator asks her whether Ama was bisexual, she insists that he was not. With Ama gone, Shiba completes Lui's tattoo, Lui and Shiba's relationship falls into a more domestic pattern, and Lui considers putting in a larger tongue stud.

Celia Amonte (Milos) is a Portuguese American widow who lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts with her daughter Vicky (Rossum); her late husband was a fisherman lost at sea. Vicky sneaks out of the house to go to a casino, where she meets Charlie Beck (Isaacs), a British card counter, and attempts to convince him to teach her his trade. Charlie is apprehended by the casino staff, and told that he can either work to find other card counters, or be banned from the casino. After accepting a ban, Charlie meets with his friends Daniel (Cassel) and Lois Vargas (Russell) at the Shawmut Diner, where they attempt to convince him to stop card counting. Charlie goes to a Portuguese restaurant with Daniel and Lois, and becomes interested in Celia after seeing her sing fado. He repeatedly tries to date Celia, and is rebuffed. Charlie later finds Celia's address in the phone book and goes to her house, where he encounters Vicky. Vicky agrees to help Charlie pursue her mother in exchange for card counting lessons, and threatens to reveal his identity as a gambler should he refuse.

Vicky tells Charlie that her mother is interested in fisherman; Charlie lies to Celia and claims to be in town to open a fish-processing plant. Celia becomes increasingly interested in Charlie, and admits her feelings for him, and struggles since her husband's death, while on a date at Ned Point Light. After a festival, Vicky stays out all night at a casino, causing Celia to worry and go looking for her. While out, she sees Charlie with Lois in his car, and suspects an affair. Charlie reveals his lies to Celia and asks for her forgiveness; she tells him to never come to her house again. Devastated, Charlie prepares to leave New Bedford. Lois visits Celia at her home, and convinces her to take Charlie back. After singing one night, Celia follows a trail of fish on the ground to find Charlie, who has become a successful fisherman. He explains that he wants her back, and would be willing to do any job to be with her. She accepts him, and the two kiss.

Sometime later, Charlie is employed at the casino to find card counters, while Celia, now married to Charlie, is a singer at the casino.

Buffy wakes to find an envelope on her pillow containing a charcoal drawing of herself sleeping. Buffy asks Giles if there is a spell to reverse Angel's invitation into her house.

Buffy explains to her mother that she has been having problems with Angel, whom she describes as an abusive ex-boyfriend. Later that night, Willow discovers that Angelus has been in her room too, leaving behind a sick gift of her dead goldfish hanging from a fishing line. Drusilla has a vision showing someone attempting to break up the newly reunited vampire family. Jenny goes to a Gypsy novelty shop to buy an Orb of Thesulah.

Buffy confronts Jenny and explains that Giles misses her. Giles tells Buffy that he has found a ritual to revoke a vampire's invitation. Joyce finds Angelus waiting for her in the front yard. He starts to follow her into the house, but is unable to cross the threshold. Willow is shown reciting the ritual, and Buffy shuts the door in his face.

When Giles finds Jenny working late at the school, he invites her to call at his house when she has finished. Jenny completes her translation of a ritual's text that, along with the Orb of Thesulah, will restore Angelus' soul. She jumps when she notices Angelus sitting in the dark at the back of the room. He smashes the Orb of Thesulah and snaps Jenny's neck.

Giles returns home to find the place decorated in a romantic setting with candles, wine and rose petals. As Giles follows the trail he finds Jenny's lifeless body. Angelus lurks outside Buffy's house and watches with glee as a devastated Buffy and Willow are informed of Jenny's death over the phone. Giles returns to his apartment to arm for battle.

At the factory, there is an explosive crash as the long dining table erupts in flame. Angelus, Drusilla, and Spike recoil and move to escape. Giles attacks Angelus with a flaming baseball bat. Angelus grabs him by the throat and lifts him clear off the floor as Buffy enters the fray. She breaks Giles free of Angelus' grasp and fights Angelus, but is distracted by the unconscious Giles, now completely surrounded by flames. As Angelus makes his escape, Buffy jumps down and half-carries Giles from the building.

Later that night, Buffy apologizes for not being able to kill Angelus when she had the chance. The next day at the school, as Willow sets her books on the desk, the backup disk containing the translated ritual slides and falls into the narrow space between the desk and a filing cabinet.

Weak with flu, Buffy collapses after a fight with Angelus. She is admitted to the hospital, much against her will. Her mother reveals that Buffy has hated hospitals ever since she saw her beloved cousin, Celia, die in one when she was eight years old.

That night, in what may be a dream, Buffy sees a young boy, Ryan, being followed by a strange-looking creature. She then starts having flashbacks of Celia's time in the hospital. Buffy awakes and takes a walk down the hall where she see two men remove a dead child from the children's ward. At the door, she overhears an argument between Dr. Backer and Dr. Wilkinson about Backer's experimental treatments on the kids. She meets Ryan who tells her that "Death" comes at night.

The next morning, Buffy tells her friends about the overheard conversation. Since she is forced to stay at the hospital, she plans to find out what the doctor is up to and Xander volunteers everyone's help. Cordelia and Xander sneak into the hospital's record room and search for records on the girl who died in the night. Meanwhile, Giles and Willow search for information at the school library.

Buffy visits Ryan who is drawing a picture of the monster she saw the night before. Willow finds that Dr. Backer has a long history of controversial experimental treatments and investigations into his practices. Dr. Backer goes to the children's ward with his latest experimental treatment. Before he can do anything, an invisible creature kills him as Ryan watches in terror.

In the morning, Buffy informs everyone that Dr. Backer is not the suspect and shows them Ryan's drawing of the creature. At the library, Cordelia finds a picture of Ryan's monster on the cover of a book; they learn that it is called ''Kindestod'' (German: 'the child's death'), a demon that absorbs the life force of sickly children, making it seem that they died of their illness. They report to Buffy by telephone, and she realises that Backer was murdered because he was curing the children and depriving the monster of food. Buffy also recognizes to her horror that this monster is what killed Celia whilst Buffy watched helplessly.

Buffy and Willow go to Dr. Backer's office, where they find that he was giving the children injections of the virus they already have, to stimulate their immune response. Buffy realizes that only feverish people can see the demon, so she decides to re-infect herself with the virus.

Buffy stumbles to the children's ward but finds all the children are gone. She sees ''Kindestod'' in the room and watches as it heads down to the basement. The children hide quietly, but ''Kindestod'' finds them and attacks Ryan. It begins to suck his life out, growing two protuberances from its eyes and attaching them to his forehead. Buffy arrives and fights ''Kindestod''. Just as it is about to suck her life out, she snaps its neck. Later that day, Buffy finishes recuperating at home and Xander and Willow decide to keep her company. Buffy receives a bloody drawing from Ryan picturing her how she killed the monster.

According to the game's opening scene, stories of the origin of the universe's power have circulated for years, but it was not until recently that the source of the power has been found. Six crystals, named the "Bomb Elements," are said to contain unfathomable, though unknown, powers. So Professor Ein sends a space freighter to retrieve them and return to Planet Bomber for analysis.

However, en route to Planet Bomber, the freighter is attacked by a hired gun and is destroyed. The Bomb Elements fall out but are sucked in by the gravitational pull of the nearby planet Tentacalls. Professor Ein receives word that the Hige Hige Bandits, led by Bomberman's arch-enemy Mujoe, are making large scale moves towards Tentacalls, and it turns out that they were the ones responsible for the freighter attack. Not only that, but the Bandits have allied themselves with Bomberman's rivals, the Crush Bombers, who are also on the move to get the Elements for Mujoe.

Professor Ein orders Bomberman to Tentacalls to defeat the Crush Bombers and the Hige Hige Bandits, and to get the Bomb Elements before they do, for if even one element falls into their hands, then the universe would be as Mujoe pleases. Thus begins Bomberman's latest chapter to restore peace and order to the galaxy.

After Homer tells a story about Bart digging a hole in the backyard for no apparent reason other than to make it deeper and bigger, Moe complains about the monotony at his tavern. Recalling his days at Swigmore University, he decides to return there for some inspiration and leaves Homer in temporary charge of the bar. At the university, Moe finds his old professor, who is dying of cancer. After advising Moe to modernize his bar, the professor drowns himself in the campus lake. Soon, the tavern is renovated by Formico, the self-proclaimed "Dean of Design", into a swanky nightclub renamed "M" and with a post-modern decor.

Homer and his bar-buddies Lenny, Carl and Barney find that they do not fit in with the new, affluent crowd, and miss their old tavern experience. Homer decides to convert his garage into a new tavern for himself and his friends. Meanwhile, Moe is confronted by the ghost of his professor and realizes that he does not fit in with his new clientele either and leaves to find Homer. Arriving at the Simpsons’ home, he finds that the new garage bar has quickly become quite popular, and even has the alternative rock band R.E.M. playing.

When confronted by Moe with the fact that it is illegal to operate a bar in a private residence, Homer claims that it is a hunting club, citing a law book that states that a hunting club may provide refreshing beverages. Moe consults the book and determines that the club must engage in the sport of hunting, to which Homer states that he will hunt for a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, much to Lisa's horror.

Homer sets out the next day to find a turkey, but Lisa and Moe scare off his quarry, using a whistle that sounds like a cougar. However, Homer mistakes the whistle for an actual cougar and accidentally shoots Moe in the leg. After Homer apologizes, he, along with Moe, R.E.M. and the rest of the Simpson family return to Moe's tavern, reverted to its original decor, for a Thanksgiving meal of a turkey, made "entirely of tofu and gluten" and provided by Michael Stipe, an environmentalist. Homer even affirms his friendship with Moe by putting some money in his tip jar.

Captain James Gordon and other officers are investigating a building filled with disfigured corpses; they have chalk-white skin, green hair, red lips, and rictus grins. Batman appears and pledges to find the killer.

Next, Bruce Wayne is seen at a social event talking to fellow millionaire Henry Claridge. On a TV in the next room, a reporter is overheard announcing that Arkham Asylum is being reopened. She suddenly begins laughing and soon dies with a face similar to the corpses. The Joker then walks onto camera and announces he will kill Claridge at midnight.

Bruce leaves the party and as Batman meets up with Gordon at Arkham Asylum. On a cell wall, the Joker has written, "One by One, they'll hear my call. Then this wicked town, will follow my fall." Gordon then has police stationed in Claridge's house to protect him. Claridge begins laughing as his face turns white and his lips pull back into a rictus. Batman crashes down through a window, but is too late to save Claridge. Meanwhile, on the streets of Gotham, the Joker enters the Williams Medical Center. After killing the security guards, he arms the inmates and releases them on the streets. Batman arrives and stops several inmates, and reveals his existence to the people on the streets.

While Bruce conducts research in the Batcave, the Joker appears on television again and threatens to kill Jay W. Wilde, another millionaire industrialist. Batman deduces that Claridge was killed with a time-released poison and tells Gordon to run a blood test on Wilde. Gordon does so, but nothing is found. Gordon is at Wilde's estate with other officers when a police helicopter crashes outside the estate. The Joker then appears and releases poison smoke bombs into the building. The Joker shoots Wilde with a bullet dipped in his toxin, killing him, and escapes.

Meanwhile, Batman reflects on his encounter months earlier with a masked criminal called the Red Hood who fell into a vat of toxic waste at the Ace Chemicals Processing Plant. He theorizes that the Red Hood was disfigured by the chemicals and became the Joker, and killed Claridge and Wilde because they were major investors in the plant. He disguises himself as a reporter and goes to the plant, where he interviews several workers, one of whom has patches of white on his face similar to the Joker's skin. When asked about his appearance, the worker replies that it came from the chemical waste created from the plant spilling onto his face, and goes on to mention that another worker, who had stuck his entire hand into a vat of the waste, had dyed his arm hairs green.

The Joker threatens to kill Judge Thomas Lake and Bruce Wayne. Police officers are at both men's houses, with Gordon at Lake's. Bruce starts laughing and turns white, having given himself a non-lethal dose of the toxin so he could get away from police custody. His butler, Alfred Pennyworth, administers a drug to slow his heart rate to slow the spread of the poison. Meanwhile, a gang of armed men dressed as clowns drive onto Lake's property where a shoot-out takes place. Bruce hallucinates about the night his parents were murdered, and realizes that the Joker means to poison Gotham’s water supply as revenge for his disfigurement. He awakes, fully recovered, in an ambulance, and changes into the Batsuit. The Joker’s men shoot at the ambulance, but Batman defeats them.

Batman takes a police motorcycle and contacts Gordon via radio. He tells Gordon that Bruce Wayne is alive and that he figured out the Joker's plan. He tells Gordon to have the water to the city shut off. Gordon contacts the reservoir, but receives no answer. Batman heads there himself to stop the Joker from poisoning the water supply. Batman meets up with the Joker, who successfully poisons the city's water supply, but Batman, having previously rigged the viaduct with explosives, detonates it, preventing the poisoned water from going into the city. Batman defeats the Joker, and briefly contemplates dropping him into the poisoned water to avenge his victims. However, he cannot bring himself to do so, and instead has the Joker imprisoned at the newly reopened Arkham Asylum. Batman meets with Gordon, who unveils to him the new Bat-Signal.

Woodrow Mulligan is a grumpy man in 1890, dissatisfied with what his world has come to: the nation's budget surplus is only 85 million dollars, prices are shockingly high to him, and his once-quiet town of Harmony, New York is bustling with livestock roaming the streets, which are full of traffic such as horse-drawn carriages, and penny-farthing bicycles zipping along at the speed limit of 8 mph. A collision with a bicyclist dumps him in a water trough, forcing him to take off his pants to dry them when he gets to his place of work.

He works as janitor for Professor Gilbert, who has just invented a "time helmet", which can transport the wearer to another decade for 30 minutes. Mulligan tries it on and it sends him to 1961; Harmony is now a busy city with streets full of cars, all sorts of urban noise, and astonishingly high prices. In the chaos he loses the helmet, which is picked up by a boy on roller skates, requiring Mulligan to give chase on a contemporary bicycle. He recovers the damaged helmet as he runs into Rollo, a scientist. They take the helmet to a "fix it" shop, where Rollo and the proprietor argue over repairs, while Mulligan wanders off and acquires a pair of pants by slapstick means.

Rollo regards the 1890s as an idyllic period, and wants to go back there in Mulligan's place. He runs off with the helmet, but Mulligan catches him at the last instant and they both go back. Mulligan is relieved to be home, and Rollo finds it charming. A week later, Mulligan has found a new appreciation for life in 1890, but Rollo is dismayed at the lack of technology and modern comforts. Annoyed by Rollo's griping, Mulligan sets the helmet for 1961, puts it on Rollo's head, and sends him back to his own time.

Mr. Rogers, the widowed father of three children (Anne, Karen, and Tom), is dealing with the departure of Aunt Nedra, who says the children are too hard to manage. The father takes the kids to a factory, Facsimile Ltd., to select a new robotic grandmother. When she arrives, young Tom and Karen quickly are smitten by the magical "grandmother." But older daughter Anne will not accept her; "Grandma" reminds her too much of her own mother, who died and left her a bitter young girl. Anne tries to run away, and runs into the path of an oncoming van which she doesn't see. Grandma pushes Anne out of the way and is struck, saving the girl. Grandma is stunned, but the sturdily constructed robot soon gets up, and Anne grows to love her when she realizes that Grandma is indestructible and will not leave them like their own mother had. Mr. Rogers also realizes how empathetic Grandma can be when she correctly deduces that he lost his own mother at a young age and, like Anne, never forgave her.

The children grow up and are ready for college. However, it is time for Grandma to move on to another family as she is apparently not needed anymore. Grandma expresses her sadness about leaving, yet reassures the kids that they brought her just as much joy as she brought them. She will return to the factory where she will either be sent to another family, or possibly have her mind stored where she and the other grandmothers like her can talk and share their experiences. After repeating this process many times, if she keeps being a good grandmother to other children, she ultimately will be rewarded with the gift of life and humanity. The kids say their farewells, and Grandma leaves the house for good.

The film opens with a clown (Buscemi) whose wife (Beals) and stripper girlfriend (Parsons) just discovered each other's existence. When his wife is jailed for trying to run him over, the stripper, the clown and his partner (Dinklage) contact a bail bondsman (Proval) whose wife just left their sickly son Timmy (Wolff) in his care. On the way, they are accosted by a crazed drug addict named Slovo (Stormare) who is hit by a car soon after.

At the jail, the five meet up with an angry record producer (Mitchell) and the girlfriend he believes to be pregnant (Rollins) whom he plans to make a star, despite her protestations of not having any talent. Also along for the ride are two priests (Vince and Williams), one of whom has begun to doubt the wisdom of the Roman Catholic Church, and who are trailing to bail out a third priest (Messina) who was goaded into a fight by the proprietor of a strip club (Rockwell).

When the nine characters intersect, they discover that Timmy has a defective kidney and is slowly dying. However, he has just been paged, as there is a donor at the hospital: Slovo. The three caring characters immediately take Timmy to the hospital, with the others in pursuit. By the time they arrive, Slovo partially recovered and escapes to wander the streets, cheerfully ignoring his internal bleeding and must be tracked down, before both he and Timmy die.

The cartoon starts with balloon people who make two balloon kids, a boy and a girl. The kids walk into a balloon forest. A tree scares them. We then see the Pincushion Man popping balloon rocks and trees. The two kids see the Pincushion Man and escape to sound the alarm. Balloon people run around and the kids run to the mayor's office, who says "HOLY SMOKES!". Balloon soldiers are made and try their best, but the villain pops some of them. He then pops a balloon caterpillar before the soldiers defeat him with balls of gum, rolling him off a precipice and sending him falling to his death. With the Pincushion Man gone, the two celebrate.

Vietnam veteran Michael Savage, upon returning to America and after his journey to the Ultra-Realm, was merged with Falkon, Prince of Bliss, after his death at the hands of his opposite, Maurkon, Prince of Rage.

Seven princes of light existed in the Ultra-Realm (Erosanda: the Prince of Love, the previously mentioned Falkon, Krishlar: the Prince of Peace, Kontentos: the Prince of Grace, Sain: the Prince of Order, Satorana: the Prince of Enlightenment, and Viridium: the Prince of Life) as did their opposites, the seven princes of darkness (Lashtarr: the Prince of Madness, previously mentioned Maurkon, Mortanos: the Prince of Death, Myridian: the Prince of Hate, Shatragon: the Prince of Chaos, Squamonton: the Prince of Greed, and Zorla: the Prince of War).

Michael Savage as Falkon travels the Ultra-Realm, eventually killing all the other Princes and thus becoming the Overlord of the Ultra-Realm, which he recreates with Princes and Princesses in place of the all-male Princes that existed previously. The special issue was set in this recreated Ultra-Realm and dealt primarily with the Princes and Princesses of Love (Eros and Sanda) and Hate (Myra and Rhydian).

Category:1986 comics debuts Category:1987 comics endings Category:Comics by Doug Moench Category:DC Comics limited series Category:Fantasy comics Category:Comics set in the Middle Ages

In a hotel room, the Lost Girl, a young prostitute, cries following an unpleasant encounter with a client while watching a television show about a family of surrealistic anthropomorphic rabbits who speak in cryptic statements and questions.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles actress Nikki Grace auditions for the lead role in the film, ''On High in Blue Tomorrows''. In her mansion, she is visited by a neighbor, who asks about the film and then tells "an old tale": a boy passed through the doorway into the world, causing a reflection that gave birth to evil that followed him. Then she tells "the variation": a girl was lost in the marketplace "as if half-born" while the alley behind the marketplace was the way to the palace. The woman is certain that Nikki will get the role, and insists, despite Nikki's claims to the contrary, that the plot involves murder. The next day, Nikki celebrates having won the role as her Polish husband Piotrek watches on.

During the first rehearsal involving Nikki and the film's lead actor Devon , the actors are interrupted by a disturbance on the set. Devon investigates, but finds nothing. Shaken by the event, director Kingsley Stewart confesses that they are shooting a remake of a German film entitled ''47'', based on a Polish folk-tale. Production was abandoned after both leads were murdered, creating rumors of the film being cursed.

After filming the first few romantic scenes between their respective characters Sue and Billy, Nikki and Devon begin an affair, despite earlier protestations that their relationship would be strictly professional and despite Piotrek warning Devon of "dark consequences" for "wrong actions". Nikki starts to have difficulties distinguishing between real life and scenes from the film. Entering a door marked "Axxon N." in an alley, she finds herself walking unto the set and causing the disturbance during the first rehearsal weeks earlier. Nikki runs away and enters a prop, which turns into an actual house. Inside the house, Nikki sees her husband going to bed. She hides from him in a closet, where she encounters a troupe of prostitutes.

At this point, various plotlines and scenes begin to entwine and complement each other, with the chronological order and the distinction between characters unclear. Some scenes show her joining the (modern-day) prostitutes, while other scenes depicts prostitutes and pimps in a wintery Łódź in 1930s. She is also shown to live a troubled marriage with her poor husband "Smithy". In another set of scenes, Nikki/Sue is talking to a policeman in a room above a nightclub. She tells him how she was sexually abused in her childhood and how her husband joined a traveling circus from Poland as a gamekeeper. She also speaks of the Phantom, a hypnotist who worked at the circus and then disappeared.

In one scene, Sue confronts Billy in front of his family, professing her love. She is sent away and slapped by Billy's wife Doris. It is now revealed that Doris was the woman who earlier told a policeman that she had been hypnotized to kill someone and found a screwdriver sticking in her own stomach. Doris remembers that the Phantom hypnotized her to kill Sue.

Feeling stalked by the Phantom, Nikki/Sue arms herself with a screwdriver. Walking down Hollywood Boulevard she notices her doppelgänger and Doris and meets with the policeman above the nightclub. Outside, she is eventually stabbed by Doris with her own screwdriver. Nikki/Sue collapses at a bus stop next to two homeless women. One tells all kinds of strange stories about her friend Niko, while the other holds a lighter in front of Sue's face until she dies. Kingsley yells "Cut!" and the camera pans back to show this has merely been a film scene.

Kingsley informs Nikki that her scenes for the film are complete. In a daze, Nikki wanders off set and into a nearby cinema, where she sees not only ''On High in Blue Tomorrows'' but events that are occurring in real-time. She follows a man upstairs and enters an apartment marked "Axxon N". Confronted by the Phantom, Nikki shoots him. The Phantom transforms into a grotesque figure before dying. Nikki flees into Room 47, which houses the rabbits on television - though she fails to see them - and then meets the Lost Girl. The Lost Girl escapes from the hotel and into Smithy's house, where she happily embraces her husband and son. Nikki is back at her mansion.

The film ends with a celebration involving the troupe of prostitutes, a one-legged woman mentioned earlier, Niko and her pet monkey and others. The women dance to Nina Simone's "Sinner Man", while a lumberjack saws a log to the beat.

A woman (Lanell Cado) steps out of a shower and is attacked and strangled to death by a mysterious man as a clock ticks, then stops.

Later (or possibly before) in Yucca Flats, Nevada, Soviet scientist Joseph Javorsky (Johnson) has defected from the USSR and arrives in America with a briefcase carrying various military secrets, including the Soviet moon landing. Javorsky and his American contacts are suddenly attacked by a pair of KGB assassins (Cardoza and John Morrison) killing Javorsky's contacts and bodyguards. Javorsky flees into the desert, walking for a great distance, and the searing heat causes him to discard much of his clothing. When he wanders in range of an American nuclear test, the bewildered Russian is transformed by it into a mindless beast with an uncontrollable urge to kill. He proceeds to murder a couple in their car on a nearby road, prompting pursuit from police officers Jim Archer (Stafford) and Joe Dobson (Aten).

Meanwhile, a vacationing family ventures along the same road. After stopping at a service station, the family's two young sons (Ronald and Alan Francis) wander off into the surrounding desert where they eventually encounter and escape from the mutated Javorsky. Their father (Douglas Mellor) searches for them but is mistaken for the killer by one of the police officers, who is searching for the murderer from the air in a small plane. The officer opens fire with a high-powered rifle on the innocent man, who manages to escape.

Eventually, the family is reunited and the police shoot and mortally wound Javorsky. A jackrabbit later nuzzles his dying body, and using the last of his strength, he caresses it before dying.

Each spring, a party from a fort travels to Hudson Bay to trade pelts for winter provisions, but, in 1815, nobody returns.

Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are lost with their horse in the Canadian wilderness when they come across an abandoned camp. An elderly Cree seer woman appears, who warns that they must kill a boy to prevent one sister from killing the other. As the sisters depart, unseen creatures track them and start howling, and their startled horse runs off. In the chaos ensuing, a Cree man (known as "The Hunter") saves and leads them to Fort Bailey, where they take refuge. Ginger explains to the fort's residents they are the daughters of a drowned trader and are seeking passage east.

The creatures are revealed as werewolves, which have besieged the fort for some time. Murphy, the fort's physician, inspects Brigitte’s wound and applies a leech, surreptitiously testing for werewolf infection. They are given a room that belonged to Wallace's son. Awakened by a voice, Ginger investigates the corridors, where she eventually finds the source: a deformed boy kept in a small, bolted unlit room; he bites her shoulder as he flees.

When Ginger and Brigitte attempt to leave, James, the fort's leader, confronts them. While Ginger and James are fighting, werewolves attack, killing one of the residents. Reverend Gilbert, suspicious of the sisters' intentions, leads them to an allegedly safe building, which actually contains a werewolf. The werewolf attacks the sisters, but The Hunter appears and kills it. As Ginger and Brigitte are going to their room, Ginger's nose starts to bleed, a sign that she is infected.

The sisters discover the boy who bit Ginger is Wallace's son, Geoffrey. As Ginger sleeps, he sneaks into the bedroom and wakes her. She tries to grab him, but he gets away. Geoffrey accidentally kills a man named Seamus who investigates the noise he makes, and Ginger is framed for his murder. Brigitte is held captive by James as Ginger is taken away to test for lycanthropy. Wallace arrives to find James threatening to rape Brigitte. He dismisses James, and makes a deal with Brigitte: her sister's life in exchange for the sisters' silence regarding his son. Wallace and Brigitte find Ginger at the doctor's, strapped to the examination table and held at gunpoint, about to be tested with a leech. When Wallace demands they release Ginger, Murphy ignores the order. Wallace shoots him dead, which prompts the other men to leave.

Determined to kill Geoffrey, Ginger finds him mourning at his mother's grave. He tries to escape but is captured instead by the men, alerting them to the deception. Wallace arrives and kills his son himself. The sisters' protection at an end, Ginger is forced to leave, and Brigitte goes with her. Desperate for a cure, the sisters go to The Hunter's cave.

At the cave, The Hunter and elderly Cree seer reveal the sisters' coming had long been prophesied and that the Red and the Black would decide the destiny of the werewolf bloodline. Brigitte enters a trance-like state and has a vision of her destiny – The Hunter attempts to kill Ginger, but Brigitte kills her sister herself. As Brigitte emerges from the trance, she finds the seer is dead, killed by Ginger, who has fled. The Hunter offers to help Brigitte find Ginger but deceives her, leading her back to the fort.

Arriving at the fort, Brigitte is taken prisoner. Gilbert tells her to beg forgiveness to save her soul, but Brigitte rejects him. He drags her out onto the parade square and prepares to burn her alive but is interrupted by Wallace, who kills him. James engages Ginger in a fight, and she slashes his throat. Ginger opens the gates and ushers in the werewolves who chase down and maul the last of the fort's residents. Wallace is soon bitten and sets the fort on fire before killing himself. The Hunter urges Brigitte to kill her sister; instead, she kills him and flees with Ginger.

The prophecy broken, Brigitte and Ginger decide to run away together and vow to protect each other. Brigitte then holds out her hand and presses a cut on it against a cut on Ginger's hand, mixing their blood and infecting herself.

At a science museum the family is visiting, Bart runs into Ralph Wiggum, who is in the process of being pushed into a giant ear by Kearney, Jimbo, Nelson, and Dolph. When Ralph is freed by a museum employee, Marge and Chief Wiggum are there to meet him. Marge observes that Ralph has a vivid imagination and learns that he has no friends to play with; she arranges a play-date for Ralph to spend time with a horrified Bart, who fears that being seen with Ralph will damage his reputation.

During their play-date, Bart and Ralph walk into Ralph's father's closet, consisting of various police utilities and records before Wiggum, initially forbidding them to enter the closet, allows them to play with the items. Bart then sees Wiggum toss aside a police master key capable of opening any door in Springfield. Bart and Ralph thus steal the key and decide to enter several closed stores at night. After encountering Nelson and his gang, the boys go to a condemned penitentiary. When Ralph objects because he is afraid, the bullies leave, but not before tossing the key into the penitentiary. Ralph and Bart enter the prison to retrieve the key, and in the process stumble onto a room housing an old electric chair. After testing out the chair, the two flee when an elderly guard approaches.

At the Simpsons' home, Bart and Ralph discover that the penitentiary will once again be used by the town, and remember that they forgot to disable the power. Unaware that the power is now active, Mayor Quimby straps himself into the electric chair in a publicity attempt. After failing to call the penitentiary, Ralph then tells Bart that Lisa can probably figure out a way to warn the Mayor. She decides to launch a model rocket with a warning message attached and aims it toward the penitentiary. However, the rocket is blown off-course and crashes through Mr. Burns' office window. As Quimby is getting electrocuted by the chair, Mr. Burns reads the note and disables the penitentiary's power, barely saving Quimby from getting killed. In the aftermath, the Simpsons congratulate Ralph, for pointing out that Lisa could solve the problem. Lisa objects but joins in after Bart points out that Ralph deserves some credit.

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, as he visits a child who will later become his wife, Clare Anne Abshire (born 1971), an artist who makes paper sculptures, with the aid of his uncontrolled ability to time travel. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which later comes to be known as Chrono-Impairment. This disorder causes Henry to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991 at the beginning of the novel, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life.

Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward relative to his own timeline. When he vanishes, where he goes, and how long his trips will last are beyond his control. However, his destinations are tied to his subconscious—he most often travels to places and times related to his own history. Certain stimuli such as stress can trigger Henry's time traveling; he often goes jogging to keep calm and remain in the present. He searches out pharmaceuticals in the future that may be able to help control his time traveling. He also seeks the advice of a geneticist, Dr. Kendrick. Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past, which means that he always arrives naked and then struggles to find clothing, shelter, and food. He does amass a number of survival skills, including lock-picking, self-defense, and pickpocketing. Much of this he learns from older versions of himself.

Once Henry and Clare's timelines converge "naturally" at the library—their first meeting in his chronology—Henry starts to travel to Clare's childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, beginning in 1977 when she is only six years old. On one of his early visits (from Clare's perspective), Henry gives her a list of the dates he will appear and she writes them in a diary so she will remember to provide him with clothes and food when he arrives. During another visit, Henry inadvertently reveals that they will be married in the future. Over time they develop a close relationship. At one point, Henry helps Clare frighten and humiliate a boy who abused her. Clare is last visited in her youth by Henry in 1989, on her eighteenth birthday, during which they make love for the first time. They are then separated for two years until their meeting at the library.

Clare and Henry eventually marry. Soon after their marriage, Clare begins to have trouble bringing a pregnancy to term because of the genetic anomaly Henry is presumably passing on to the fetus. After five miscarriages, Henry wishes to save Clare further pain and has a vasectomy. However a version of Henry from the past visits Clare one night and they make love; she subsequently gives birth to a daughter named Alba. Alba is diagnosed with Chrono-Impairment as well but, unlike Henry, she has some control over her destinations when she time travels. Before she is born, Henry travels to the future and meets his ten-year-old daughter on a school field trip. Unfortunately, during this trip, he learns that he dies when Alba is five years old.

When he is 43, during what is to be his last year of life, Henry time travels to a Chicago parking garage on a frigid winter night where he is unable to find shelter. As a result of the hypothermia and frostbite he suffers while sleeping in the parking garage, his feet are amputated when he returns to the present time. Both Henry and Clare know that without the ability to escape when he time travels, Henry will certainly die within his next few jumps. On New Year's Eve 2006 Henry time travels into the middle of the Michigan woods in 1984 and is accidentally shot by Clare's brother, a scene foreshadowed earlier in the novel. Henry returns to the present and dies in Clare's arms.

Clare is devastated by Henry's death. She later finds a letter from Henry telling her to "stop waiting" for him, though it also describes a moment in her future when she will see him again. The couple reunites when Clare is 82 years old and Henry is 43. The novel's last scene shows a time when Clare, well into her old age, still waits for Henry, as she has done most of her life.

On a freezing planet, a team of 12 Xeno Project archaeologists and scientists are excavating the ruins of an ancient civilisation. They discover a cave system containing wall markings and crystals of unknown origin. During a survey, a mysterious explosion cripples photographer Dean White and injures Ricky Williams. Deciphering the wall markings, exolinguist Mitch theorises that the civilisation was built on a concept of dualism: the planet orbits a binary star and seems to have been ruled by twins. Medical assistant Sharon discovers that the crystals are surrounded by an energy field and suggests that the civilisation was controlled by a form of chemical intelligence.

A crystal sample begins to pulsate, causing the intelligence to take control of Ricky through a wound on his arm. In his delusional state, he is compelled to leave the team's base and go back into the caves. He throws Gail into a pile of twisted metal, damaging her environmental suit and trapping her foot. Desperate to free herself, Gail removes her helmet and tries to amputate her foot with a chainsaw, but instead freezes to death in the planet's toxic atmosphere. Documentation officer Kate Carson shoots Ricky with a harpoon gun before he opens the airlock and evacuates all of the base's air.

Ricky and Gail are buried outside the base. Later, Mitch and Sandy return to the caves to collect more crystals. A monstrous alien creature appears and dismembers Mitch, then rapes Sandy with a transparent tubular phallus pumping green liquid. Sandy is taken back to base and treated by the team's doctor, Karl, who discovers that the attack has triggered an accelerated pregnancy. When further underground explosions block off the caves, the survivors are left with nothing to do but wait for Xeno to pick them up.

The intelligence takes over Sandy, giving her superhuman strength. She stabs Barbra to death with a pair of scissors and mutilates Dean and the remains of Mitch, drinking their blood. The rest of the team take refuge in the control room as Sandy uses explosives to blow up the base transmitter. After Sandy appears to return to her normal self, Karl, Sharon and Commander Holly McKay try to sedate her. However, Sandy reverts to her violent state, killing Karl and Holly and disembowelling their corpses.

Mark radios Sandy from the control room to distract her while Kate and Gary arm themselves with chainsaws from a storage room. Sandy uncovers the ruse and harpoons Gary outside the airlock, breathing the atmosphere to no ill effect as she feeds on his flesh. She then re-enters the base and gives birth to hybrid twins. Mark stumbles across the newborns and leaves them with Sharon as Sandy blows up the door to the control room and smashes the equipment inside. Sandy uses another explosive charge to wound Kate, then kills her. Finally, Mark overpowers Sandy and strangles her to death with a length of cable. He returns to Sharon to find one of the twins drinking from her torn-out throat, then comes face to face with its sibling.

Twenty-eight days later, a Xeno shuttle lands on the planet to investigate the loss of contact with the team. With the base in ruins and its occupants either dead or missing, commandos Corin and Roy abandon the search for survivors and shuttle pilot Jeff radios Xeno for clearance to return. The final shots reveal that the twins have stowed away inside a storage compartment on board the shuttle.

In 1986, Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr meet young Jean Grey at her parents' house to invite her to join their school, the X-Mansion. Ten years later, the industrialist Warren Worthington II discovers his son is a mutant as he tries to cut off his wings.

In the present, Worthington Labs announces it has developed an inoculation to suppress the X-gene that gives mutants their abilities and offer the "cure" to any mutant who wants it. The cure is created from the genome of a young mutant named Jimmy, who lives at the Worthington facility on Alcatraz Island. While some mutants are interested in the cure, including Rogue, many others are horrified by the announcement. Magneto re-establishes his Brotherhood of Mutants with those who oppose the cure, warning his followers that the cure will be forcefully used to exterminate the mutant race. With help from Pyro, Magneto recruits Callisto and several other mutants. They attack the mobile prison holding Mystique to free her, also freeing Multiple Man and Juggernaut. Mystique, shielding Magneto from a cure dart, is hit by it and loses her mutant abilities. Magneto abandons her as a result. Meanwhile, Scott Summers, still distraught over the loss of his fiancée Jean Grey, drives to her resting location at Alkali Lake. Jean appears to Summers but, as the two kiss, Jean kills him. Sensing trouble, Xavier sends Logan and Storm to investigate. When they arrive, they find only telekinetically floating rocks, Summers' glasses, and an unconscious Jean.

When Logan and Storm return to the X-Mansion, Xavier explains to Logan that when Jean sacrificed herself to save them, she also freed the "Phoenix", a dark and extremely powerful alternate personality which Xavier had telepathically repressed, aware of the Phoenix's godlike destructive potential. Logan is disgusted to learn of this psychic tampering with Jean's mind but, once she awakens, he discovers that she killed Summers and is not the Jean Grey he once knew. The Phoenix emerges, knocks out Logan, and escapes to her childhood home. Magneto learns of Jean's resurrection through Callisto, and the X-Men arrive at the Grey home at the same time as the Brotherhood. Magneto and Xavier go in, and both vie for Jean's loyalty until the Phoenix resurfaces. She destroys the house and kills Xavier by disintegrating him, before leaving with Magneto. After interrogating a depowered Mystique, the FBI discover Magneto's base in the woods. However, the life forms in the camp are all decoy copies of Multiple Man. Magneto and the Brotherhood have gone to storm Alcatraz by using his magnetic manipulation powers to reroute the Golden Gate Bridge. The remaining X-Men confront the Brotherhood, despite being significantly outnumbered, and arrive just as the military troops who thus far have been neutralizing the attacking mutants are overwhelmed by the Brotherhood.

During the fight, Kitty Pryde saves Jimmy from Juggernaut, who had been sent to kill him by Magneto. Logan has Colossus throw him at Magneto and distract him long enough for Hank McCoy to inject Magneto with the "cure" and thus nullify his powers. The Phoenix is awakened and begins to destroy Alcatraz and anyone within range of her powers. Logan realizes that only he can stop the Phoenix due to his healing factor and adamantium skeleton. When Logan approaches her, Jean momentarily gains control and begs him to save her, and everyone else, by killing her. Logan fatally stabs Jean, killing the Phoenix, but mourns her death. Sometime later, mutant rights are finally obtained and Xavier's school is still operating with Storm as headmistress. The President of the United States appoints McCoy as ambassador to the United Nations. Rogue reveals to Bobby Drake that she has taken the cure, much to his disappointment, but they hold hands. Meanwhile, Magneto sits at a chessboard in San Francisco, seemingly human and weak. As Magneto gestures toward a metal chess piece, it wobbles slightly.

Elsewhere, Moira MacTaggert checks on a comatose patient who greets her with Xavier's voice, leaving her startled.

Set in the fictional New England town of the same name, ''Bizenghast'' focuses on fifteen-year-old Dinah Wherever. Her parents' car crash leaves her orphaned at a young age, and as a result, she moves in with her aunt. Dinah can see the ghosts which haunt her aunt's house, which was a hospital and later a boarding school; however, her aunt and doctor believe that she has schizophrenia. One day, she and her only friend, Vincent Monroe, sneak out of her aunt's house to search for materials for his garden. They stumble across an ancient mausoleum, and after Dinah reads aloud from a plaque, she discovers that her name is written on a contract which binds her to return to the mausoleum every night to free the ghosts. If she succeeds, she will win her freedom and a reward. If she fails, she will die and stay in the mausoleum as a corpse.

For every ten ghosts appeased, Dinah and Vincent get a tower guard to help with their task. Over the course of the series, they meet two of the guards: Edaniel, a grinning cat-like creature, and his brother Edrear, who secretly likes Dinah. Vincent dies while in one of the vaults, causing Dinah to become depressed. Later, the hooded angel, which normally guards the entrance to the mausoleum, appears as two stones that talk to Dinah and help her overcome the depression which resulted from Vincent's death.

Dinah continues searching the vaults and discovers that Edaniel and Edrear's sister, Eniri, is missing, and that the seed of the mausoleum—its link to the Host in the afterlife—has been stolen. Additionally, Edaniel and Edrear's other sister, Elala, is found dead. After Edaniel and Edrear lock down the mausoleum, they send Dinah home and she discovers that Maphohetka, a girl hanged for witchcraft and who now as a ghost can control minds in the real world, is manipulating Eniri and the townspeople. Unsuccessful in her attempt to stop her, Dinah flees to the mausoleum and receives a special outfit melted from the gold tolls that she and Vincent paid to gain access to the mausoleum. Returning, she confronts Maphohetka, who then orders Edaniel to kill her.

In the ensuing battle, Dinah faces off against her former friend, accidentally decapitating Edaniel in the process. An enraged Edrear attempts to kill her, but eventually halts when Dinah points out that he's crying for his brother, something that he's normally unable to do and that's being caused by Maphohetka's influence. Knowing that he's been compromised, Edrear stabs himself with his own sword, leaving Dinah to mourn him and share one kiss. Maphohetka, taking the opportunity, destroys Dinah's scythe (the only thing she had that could potentially kill her) and ends up mutating into a large monster. After Dinah is captured in Maphohetka's body, she happens upon the entity's core, which is Maphohetka's decayed corpse. Using Eniri's bracelet to see into the monster, she finds that a piece of the cross Maphohetka was stabbed with during her hanging is still lodged in her chest, allowing Dinah to conclude that the piece is what keeps the evil spirit anchored in the living world. Dinah removes the cross shard, causing Maphohetka to fade away.

Wanting to seek help, Dinah stabs herself with the crucifix piece, allowing her to temporarily ascend into the afterlife. There, she encounters her mother, who gives her another mausoleum seed that Dinah takes back to the living world. Dinah uses the seed to revive everyone killed in the incident and her armor melts into coins that flow out of the fountain. But in the end, Dinah opts to remove the crucifix piece, killing herself.

Dinah walks through her own funeral, bidding her mourning aunt goodbye before wandering outside. On the way, she encounters Vincent, but the two don't recognize each other until they find the hidden graveyard. Dinah and Vincent become two mausoleum guards alongside a revived Edaniel and Edrear (two young women who happened onto the graveyard having been contracted to the mausoleum). The series closes with Dinah on top of one of the towers beside Vincent, commenting how "she's starting to like this town."

Sammy, a teenage clerk in an A&P grocery, is working the cash register on a hot summer day when three young women about his age enter barefoot and clad only in swimsuits, to purchase herring snacks.

Sammy ogles the girls sexually, also remarking to himself that had this been the beach, it would not have stood out as the fluorescent lighting of the store accentuated their appearance. He imagines details about the girls based on their appearance alone, impressions that, to his surprise, are shaken when the leader of the trio, a gorgeous, classy-looking beauty he has dubbed "Queenie", speaks in a voice unlike that which he had created in his mind. Lengel, the prudish manager, feels the girls are not clothed appropriately for a grocery store, and admonishes them, telling them they must have their shoulders covered next time, which Sammy believes embarrasses them.

Offended by the manager's disregard for the three customers' dignity, Sammy ceremoniously removes his store apron and bow tie and resigns on the spot, despite the mention by the manager that he believes Sammy's resignation is for rash reasons and to reconsider. Lengel also remarks he knows Sammy's parents and he ought not do anything that would embarrass them socially. Sammy then leaves the store, seemingly in expectation of some display of affection or appreciation from the young women involved, only to find that they've already left, apparently oblivious to his presence. Sammy then feels a sense of dread, thinking to himself how hard his life will be from now on.

In 1987, Dr. Gene Seagram leads the top-secret Pentagon program Meta Section, which secretly attempts to leapfrog current technology by 20 to 30 years. One result: the Sicilian Project, which uses sound waves to stop incoming ballistic missiles. The immense power needs of the Sicilian Project can be met only by an extremely rare mineral called Byzanium. After satellite data pinpoints the most likely source of Byzanium, Meta Section sends Sid Koplin to Novaya Zemlya, an island off the northern coast of the Soviet Union. There he discovers that the byzanium ore has already been mined. While making his way back to his hidden boat Koplin is shot and captured by a Soviet guard but is rescued by the story's protagonist, Dirk Pitt.

Using clues found by Koplin, Seagram determines that the byzanium — a chunk worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars in 1912 figures — was mined in the early part of the 20th century by a group of Coloradan miners, including Joshua Hayes Brewster. The group was originally hired by the French government, but persuaded by the U.S. government to steal the mineral for the United States. Brewster and his men engage in a running battle with French assassins as they crisscross Europe trying to get their stolen goods home. Only Brewster reaches Southampton alive, and he books passage on the maiden voyage of the great White Star Line ship RMS ''Titanic''.

Realizing that the only supply of byzanium sufficient to power the Sicilian Project now lies at the bottom of the North Atlantic, Dr. Seagram approaches Dirk Pitt and the National Underwater and Marine Agency and gives them the near impossible task of raising the ''Titanic''. Using data from drop tank experiments Pitt is able to narrow down the search area and begin searching with deep sea submersibles. After finding a presentation model cornet that they can link positively to a member of the ''Titanic'''s band, Pitt and his colleagues know they are searching in the right place. After discovering that the ''Titanic'' is intact they set out on an audacious plan to patch all of the holes and then raise the wreck using compressed air.

Meanwhile the Central Intelligence Agency convinces the President of the United States to leak information on both the Sicilian Project and the ''Titanic'' mission to the Soviet Union in the hopes of setting a trap to capture one of the Soviets' best intelligence officers in the KGB. When Soviet leaders realize that the development of the Sicilian Project would throw off the balance of power in the world and leave their nuclear arsenal impotent, they do just as the CIA hopes and launch an operation to sabotage the mission and steal the byzanium for themselves.

Once the ''Titanic'' is secured for the trip to the United States, a massive hurricane strikes the salvage area, allowing the Soviets to covertly board the ship and take the crew hostage. Pitt, who was previously believed dead after being last seen on board a crashed helicopter, reemerges to expose the Soviet spies within the salvage crew. With the help of Navy SEALs who boarded from a hidden U.S. Navy submarine, the crew regain control of the ''Titanic''. The ship is eventually towed to New York Harbor and laid up in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. When the ship's vault is opened, all are shocked to discover the byzanium was never actually aboard the ship. This revelation, coupled with deep troubles with his marriage and the President's agreement to leaking word of the Sicilian Project to the Soviets, eventually cause Dr. Seagram to have a nervous breakdown from which he never recovers. It is eventually revealed that Joshua Hayes Brewster, fearful that he would not make it onto the ship with the mineral, buried the byzanium in the grave of Vernon Hall, the last of the group to fall to the French assassins, located in the tiny English village of Southby. The novel ends with a successful test of the Sicilian Project in the Pacific Ocean.

Plot overview

There are two strands to the plot: the conspiracy against the Warden of Outland, instigated by the Sub-Warden and Chancellor, and the love of a young doctor, Arthur, for Lady Muriel.

Condensed narrative

Volume 1, ''Sylvie and Bruno''

Conspiracy in Outland; Arthur and Lady Muriel

;Chapter 1: The narrator is in his spacious breakfast-saloon, high above the noisy public square. The Chancellor has hired a mob to put on a ”spontaneous” protest, but the rioters seem confused whether to chant for more or less of bread and taxes. Bruno enters, looking for Sylvie, but he ends up on the Chancellor's knee with Sylvie, listening to the Warden's report of the Professor's return from his travels in search of health. In the Library the Professor tells them about his troubles with barometric and "horizontal weather" issues.

;Chapter 2: The narrator finds himself in a train compartment, which a veiled young lady has just entered. He is on his way to see Arthur, a doctor friend, for a consultation; he rereads Arthur's letter, and absent-mindedly repeats out loud its last line, "Do you believe in Fate?" The lady laughs, and a conversation ensues. The scene changes abruptly to the breakfast-saloon, in which the Professor is explaining his plunge-bath invention to the Sub-Warden, his wife, her son, the Chancellor, Warden, Sylvie, and Bruno.

;Chapter 3: The Chancellor tries to persuade the Warden to elevate the Sub-Warden to Vice-Warden. The Warden asks the Sub-Warden for a private talk. The Sub-Warden's wife asks the Professor about his Lecture, suggesting a Fancy Dress Ball. He gives Sylvie a birthday present: a pincushion. Uggug throws butter over Sylvie. The Sub-Warden distracts his wife by saying a pig is in the garden; the Chancellor drags Uggug out by his ear.

;Chapter 4: The Warden agrees to the changes. After he has signed the Agreement and left (to become Monarch of Fairyland), the Chancellor, Vice-Warden and his wife laugh about how they have deceived him, the document having been altered at the last minute to give the Vice-Warden dictatorial powers. A beggar appears beneath the window; Uggug and his mother throw water over him. Bruno tries to throw him some food, but he has gone.

;Chapter 5: The narrator wakes up, and he and the lady discuss ghosts. They change trains at Fayfield Junction; he notices her name on her luggage: Lady Muriel Orme. An old tramp is sent on his way. The narrator falls asleep again, and hears the first stanza of the Mad Gardener's Song. The Gardener directs Sylvie and Bruno after the beggar. They give him cake, and he leads them to an underground octagonal room lined with creepers bearing fruit and flowers. His clothes transform, and they find it is their father.

;Chapter 6: He says they are in Elfland. Bruno tries to eat the fruit (Phlizz) but it has no taste. Their father shows Sylvie two lockets, one blue ("All will love Sylvie") and one red ("Sylvie will love all"). She chooses the red. The narrator finds himself at the railway station of his destination, Elveston. On arriving at Arthur's house, he tells him of Lady Muriel Orme, and it turns out that Arthur knows her and is in love with her. The narrator falls asleep again, and hears the Chancellor warn the Vice-Warden that the Ambassador of Elfland has arrived and that they will need to convince him that Uggug is Bruno, or as able as Bruno.

;Chapter 7: The Ambassador, Baron Doppelgeist, is given demonstrations of Uggug's abilities which always happen when he is looking the other way. Finding his guestroom full of frogs, he leaves in anger.

;Chapter 8: The narrator visits Lady Muriel and her father, the Earl, in the company of Arthur. They discuss weightlessness. Later, Arthur and the narrator visit the beach. Arthur goes home. Sylvie and Bruno go in search of the Beggar, their father. She rubs the red amulet, and a mouse is transformed into a lion, which they ride. Their father listens to their account of the Ambassador's visit; he cannot rectify the situation, but casts a spell.

;Chapter 9: Uggug refuses to learn his lessons. The Vice-Warden and his wife try on disguises: jester and dancing bear. Uggug sees them and runs off to fetch the Professor. When he arrives, they are dressed normally, and they tell him that the people wish to elect an Emperor—the Vice-Warden.

Intermezzo

;Chapter 10: The Professor takes Sylvie and Bruno to see the Other Professor. The Professor asks him about the Pig-Tale, which he promised to give after the Professor's Lecture. Bruno asks what "inconvenient" means.

;Chapter 11: By way of illustration, the Other Professor recites ''Peter and Paul'', 208 lines of verse.

;Chapter 12: After a discussion, the Other Professor vanishes. Sylvie and Bruno complain to the Professor about their treatment, and ask him to tell the Gardener to open the garden door for them, so they can go to Fairyland to see their father.

;Chapter 13: They walk a long way, stopping briefly to visit the King of Dogland, before entering the gate of Fairyland. Arthur tells the narrator that he has discovered that he has more wealth than he thought, and that marriage with Lady Muriel is at least possible.

;Chapter 14: The narrator spends a month at London; when he returns, he finds that Arthur has still not yet declared his intentions. The narrator sets off to speak to the Earl; on the way he encounters first Sylvie (who is helping a Beetle) and then Bruno (who is spoiling Sylvie's garden). He persuades Bruno to help weed it instead.

;Chapter 15: Bruno weeds the garden with the narrator's help.

Eric

;Chapter 16: The Earl invites Arthur to a picnic in ten days' time. On the day, walking to their house, the narrator encounters Sylvie and Bruno again.

;Chapter 17: The party leave the Earl's Hall and travel to a ruined castle, the site of the picnic. Muriel sings, but the narrator falls asleep, and her song becomes that of Bruno.

;Chapter 18: Muriel introduces Captain Eric Lindon, a highly presentable young man. Arthur is in despair, and declines to return with the party in the same carriage. The narrator falls asleep again, and there is a meeting between Lindon, Sylvie, Bruno, and the Professor.

;Chapter 19: A week later, Arthur and the narrator go to church. They discuss religion with Muriel, condemning High Church affectations, and moralising which relies on Pascal's Wager. The narrator helps carry a lame little girl upstairs at the railway station, and buys a posy in the street. The girl turns out to be Sylvie.

;Chapter 20: He brings Sylvie and Bruno to the Earl's Hall. The Earl is astonished by the flowers, none of which are English. Muriel sings a new song. A couple of days later, the flowers have vanished. The narrator, Muriel, and the Earl idly sketch an alternative scheme for the animal kingdom.

;Chapter 21: Sylvie asks the Professor for advice. He unlocks the Ivory Door for the two of them, and they meet Bruno. The Professor boasts of having devised the Emperor's new Money Act, doubling the value of every coin to make everyone twice as rich, and shows the narrator an "Outlandish" watch (essentially a kind of time machine). Sylvie finds a dead hare, and is horrified to learn that human beings hunt them.

;Chapter 22: Arthur is even more discouraged. Muriel is surprised to discover that Eric has met Sylvie and Bruno. Eric saves Bruno from being run down by a train.

;Chapter 23: The narrator tries to use the Outlandish watch to prevent an accident, but fails. He then uses it to witness, in reverse, some scenes of family life. Later, the narrator is talking to the Earl when he learns, and Arthur overhears, that Muriel is engaged to Eric.

;Chapter 24: Sylvie and Bruno present a variety show to an audience of frogs, including "Bits of Shakespeare", and Bruno tells them a long rambling story.

;Chapter 25: A week after discovering that Muriel is engaged, Arthur and the narrator go for the "last" time to the Earl's Hall. They discuss with Muriel how the Sabbath should best be kept, and the nature of free will. Arthur informs the narrator that he is leaving for India.

Volume 2, ''Sylvie and Bruno Concluded''

A clean slate

;Chapter 1: Several weeks pass in London. The narrator sees Eric Lindon at a club, and learns that Eric's engagement to Muriel is over, and that Arthur is still at Elveston. The narrator meets Bruno in a park; Sylvie gives Bruno his lessons. A thunderstorm drives the narrator home, where he finds a telegram from Arthur, asking him to come.

;Chapter 2: As before, the narrator meets Lady Muriel while changing trains at Fayfield Junction. She is giving money to the old tramp (vol. 1, ch. 5). On their way to Elveston she says that Eric broke off their engagement because of her evident discomfort with Eric's lukewarm faith. Arthur does not know this.

;Chapter 3: The next morning, on a walk, Arthur discusses his anti-socialist views, and condemns charity bazaars as "half charity, half self-pleasing". Sylvie and Bruno contrive that he should meet Muriel, who is also out walking.

;Chapter 4: The narrator presses on without him to Hunter's farm to order milk. On his way he meets the farmer, who is talking to a woman about her hard-drinking husband, Willie. At the farm, the dog Nero (who is the Dog King from vol. 1, ch. 13) catches a boy who is stealing apples.

;Chapter 5: The three of them meet the farmer's wife, daughter Bessie, and Bessie's doll, Matilda-Jane. On their way back to Elveston they pass the Golden Lion, a new public house.

;Chapter 6: Willie comes walking down the road; Sylvie and Bruno invisibly drag him away from the pub. He delivers his wages to his wife, and swears off drink. The narrator walks back to the house, and learns that Arthur is now engaged to Muriel.

;Chapter 7: At the Hall, the narrator finds Muriel with a man called "Mein Herr", who has a beard and a German accent. He bears a remarkable resemblance to the Professor. He shows them Fortunatus's Purse, and describes a gravity-powered train, a method of storing up extra time so that nobody ever gets bored, a carriage with oval wheels (with the end of one wheel corresponding to the side of the wheel opposite it, so that the carriage rises, falls, rolls, and pitches, and so anybody in the carriage gets vomitingly sick) He also describes a carriage designed to prevent runaway horses from getting anywhere. Oddly enough, nobody seems to remember where they first met "Mein Herr", nor what his real name is, nor where he lives, nor where he's from. Lady Muriel admits that she never realised what a mysterious man he is until she met the narrator. A party is planned.

;Chapter 8: Ten days pass. The day before the party, Arthur, Muriel and the narrator have tea at the Hall. Arthur argues that the gravity of a sin must be judged by the temptation preceding it. The Earl returns from the harbour-town with news of the spread of a fever.

A brief marriage

;Chapter 9: At the party, conversation ranges over sanity and insanity, cheating at croquet versus cheating at whist, rational honeymoons, teetotalism, and keeping dinner parties interesting.

;Chapter 10: An interlude, with the arrival of Sylvie and Bruno, the discussion of wine (which is transformed into a discussion of jam) and an unsatisfying musical performance.

;Chapter 11: Another interlude, with "Mein Herr" telling tall tales about his country. He describes how nobody in his kingdom ever drowns, because they have been eugenically bred for dozens of generations to weigh less and less until everybody is lighter than water. He also hears that the largest map considered really useful would be six inches to the mile; although his country had learnt map-making from his host Nation, it had carried it much further, having gone through maps that are six feet to the mile, then six yards to the mile, next a hundred yards to the mile—finally, a mile to the mile (the farmers said that if such a map was to be spread out, it would block out the sun and crops would fail, so the project was abandoned). He goes on to portray some devices similar to modern planetary engineering or terraforming, and paint-balls. Finally, he describes a system of government where there are thousands of kings and one subject, instead of the other way around.

;Chapter 12: Sylvie plays the piano for the assembled company. Mein Herr discusses incomprehensibility by describing how, in the days when he worked at a school in his country, there was an old professor who lectured to pupils, and, although his speeches were incomprehensible, the pupils were so impressed that they memorised the speeches. Many of these pupils got jobs as lecturers in schools, and repeated the speeches made by the first professor, and the pupils were impressed by the speeches and memorised them, getting jobs as lecturers in schools later on, until a day came when everyone realised that nobody understood what the speeches meant. Another craze was that of competitive examinations, when teachers motivated students by giving them money if the answers are correct, until eventually, the bright students in school make more money than the teachers do. The most insane craze was the Scholarship Hunts, when any principal that wanted a student in his college had to hunt them in the streets and the first principal to catch the student wins. One principal, theorising how bullets have accelerated velocity because they're spherical, becomes perfectly spherical, in an attempt to catch the brightest scholar. Unfortunately, the Principal runs too fast and soon finds himself going at 100 MPH and only stops after he crashes into a haybale. It is implied that if he hadn't deliberately run into a haybale, he would have run off the planet.

;Chapter 13: A continuation of the Scholar Hunters story of chapter 12. Mein Herr explains how the Scholarship Hunts evolves into a more 'civilised' method of catching scholars; the children are offered more and more money for a scholarship in an event that amounts to auctioning them off. One day, a linguist finds an old African Legend (although the nature of the story appears to be stereotypically Ottoman) in which a village that stands in the heart of Africa is inhabited by people for whom a beverage made for eggs is a necessity. A merchant arrives at the town with eggs and auctions them off for large blocks of money, as the natives very badly need their eggs. He returns each week with eggs, pricing them higher, and the natives end up giving him fortunes for the eggs, until one day, when they realise how they are letting the merchant get rich off of their gullibility, and cheat the system by having only one man (who requests 10 piastres for the whole cartload) appear at the next auction. The principals realise how they are having the same problems with their students that the Africans had with the eggs, and this system is abolished. Mein Herr's speech is interrupted for the narrator by stanzas of ''What Tottles Meant''.

;Chapters 14–15: Sylvie tells the story "Bruno's Picnic".

;Chapter 16: Sylvie and Bruno have vanished. The guests, after a brief search, go home; Muriel, Arthur and the Earl discuss what pursuits might be followed in the Afterlife.

;Chapter 17: Muriel sings ''To a Lark'' (which is replaced, for the dreaming narrator, by a different song). Arthur is called away to the harbour to treat cases of the deadly fever, and he leaves immediately after his wedding the next morning.

;Chapter 18: An item in the ''Fayfield Chronicle'' reports the death of Arthur Forester.

The return

;Chapter 19: In December of the same year, the narrator returns to Elveston, and visits Arthur's grave in the company of Muriel. They have tea with the Earl, and discuss whether animals have souls. Lady Muriel walks the narrator part of the way home, and they meet Sylvie and Bruno, who are singing ''A Song of Love''.

;Chapter 20: Back in Outland, the Professor welcomes Sylvie and Bruno back to the palace in time for Uggug's birthday celebrations. They hear the last verse of the Gardener's Song, then hurry to the Saloon.

;Chapter 21: The Professor delivers his Lecture. It includes Axioms, Specimens, and Experiments. Part of the Specimens involve shrinking an elephant to the size of a mouse with the use of a Megaloscope, and reversing the Megaloscope to enlarge a flea to the size of a horse. One experiment involves the subject of Black Light by taking a candle and pouring black ink over the flame and turning the flame's yellow light to black light, which admittedly looks no different than no light at all.

;Chapter 22: (The narrator visits the tramp mentioned in vol. 2, ch. 2.) The Banquet takes place.

;Chapter 23: The Other Professor recites ''The Pig-Tale''. The Emperor is in the process of making a speech when a mysterious "hurricane" causes him and his wife to regret all of their previous intrigues against the Warden. (No attempt is made to justify this in the terms of the story.)

;Chapter 24: The Beggar returns to the palace, and is revealed to be the Warden. Uggug, who has turned into a giant porcupine, is put into a cage. Sylvie and Bruno visit the ill Professor in the company of the Empress.

;Chapter 25: In the "real" world, the narrator is called urgently to the Hall. Eric Lindon has found Arthur Forester still living—he had been unconscious or delirious for several months, and went unrecognised as the doctor. On returning to his own lodgings, the narrator witnesses his last scene from Outland: Bruno and Sylvie discover that the two Jewels (vol. 1, ch. 6) are in fact one.

There are two strands to the plot: the conspiracy against the Warden of Outland, instigated by the Sub-Warden and Chancellor, and the love of a young doctor, Arthur, for Lady Muriel.

In the 1940s, "Baby" Jane Hudson is a world-famous child star. Jane dominates her shy sister Blanche, who, as Jane's understudy and stunt double, longs to have an acting career of her own. By the 1960s, Blanche has become a serious and celebrated actress, while Jane's career fades into obscurity. Blanche's own career is ultimately cut short by a car accident that paralyzes her from the waist down, after which Jane was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Everyone believes that Jane, jealous of her sister's popularity, had run her over with her car and then gone insane with guilt.

In the present day, the aging sisters live together in a crumbling Brentwood mansion, where Jane, who still dresses herself in her old Baby Jane clothes and makeup, cares for the paraplegic Blanche. Blanche's films have recently become available on home video and television, launching her into a modest comeback. Jane resents both her sister's enduring popularity and her own role as caretaker and takes out her resentment on Blanche with vicious pranks. She intercepts all of the mail addressed to her sister, particularly fan letters, and constantly reminds Blanche that she never would have had a career if not for Jane's success. Blanche and her physical therapist, Dominick, worry that Jane's pranks might turn violent if she finds out Blanche is selling the house without her knowledge.

Hoping that she can also stage a comeback, Jane goes to a video store to see which of her old films are available on tape. Billy Korn, the store's owner, recognizes her as Baby Jane, much to her delight. Korn offers to manage her comeback and promises to arrange a spot in a talent show for $1,000. Jane agrees without realizing that he is a con artist only after her money.

Back at home, Blanche tries to call her sister's psychiatrist, only to have Jane overhear the conversation and then physically attack her. Blanche tries to escape, but Jane locks her in her upstairs bedroom with no means of communication. After being starved for days, Blanche rummages through Jane's bedroom drawers for food and discovers that she has been forging her signature on checks to steal her money. Dominick arrives for his physical therapy session and discovers that Jane has bound and gagged her sister with duct tape. As he is attempting to cut her loose, Jane stabs Dominick to death with a pair of scissors and hides his body in the basement screening room.

Jane is shocked to learn that the "talent show" Korn arranged is actually a drag revue, complete with Korn himself dressed as Blanche. When they try to perform a duet from their childhood, the audience ridicules Jane's appearance and her poor singing voice, leading her to suffer a mental breakdown and be forced offstage. Korn drives to the mansion and finds Blanche, bound and gagged, near death. Jane stabs him to death with a broken trophy.

Jane puts Blanche in her car and drives to the beach, where their fondest memories took place during their childhood. Blanche admits she had been driving the car on the night of the accident but had allowed Jane to take the blame. She apologizes for never telling Jane the truth, and they are momentarily reconciled. The police arrive to find Blanche unconscious and near death. As they radio for help, Jane walks into the sea, attempting suicide before a police officer drags her out. The last shot is of Jane's smiling face as she goes willingly with the police.

Phaedra, second wife of shipping tycoon Thanos (Raf Vallone), falls in love with her husband's son from his first marriage, Alexis (Anthony Perkins). The love is doomed from the very beginning but they are unable to control their feelings.

Setting

Following the near-annihilation of Earth during the last atomic war, the surviving human population retreated to the center of the planet where the last traces of life-sustaining warmth remained. Waiting out the surface radiation, centuries passed before the humans finally ventured back into the world above, discovering that their planet had sprouted a lush, overgrown jungle in their absence along with various races of mutants, including a peaceful race known as the Bouzouk (spelled "Boozook" in the US release), who differ from humans by their tails, pointed ears, and extraordinarily long noses. In the societal structure of the Bouzouk there was a King and a Council of Wisemen, seven mystics who had successfully maintained universal harmony by guarding the Chprotznog, a sacred containment unit used to channel and subsequently trap evil spirits.

Having failed to learn their lesson from last time, the humans immediately waged war on the tranquil Bouzouk tribe in what became known as "The Great Battle". In a mere day, the humans destroyed the Bouzouk civilization, massacring many innocent civilians and looting their holy artifacts, including the Chprotznog. The surviving Bouzouks were enslaved and forced to construct a new society for the humans, the great vertical city of Vlurxtrznbnaxl, an economically self-sufficient city run on wind power and surrounded by rich farmland. Its citizens live in different parts of the city according to their socio-economic status: the poor live on the lower levels while the rich and powerful live on the higher levels. The remaining Bouzouk peoples became exploited and oppressed; their once great society in shambles, they're left to work menial jobs and manual labor, living uneasily alongside the humans while their deposed King now spends his days in his dilapidated castle, drinking beer and watching TV.

The present

The game begins about a century later, where the great city has since devolved into a nightmarish dystopia under the rule of a bureaucratic and totalitarian government. Heading the government is the reclusive President, who's represented by his corrupt advisor, a hideous man known only as the BigWig. In the lower levels of the city, relations between humans and Bouzouks have grown to their most tense, giving rise to a group known as the Bouzouk Freedom Party, a terrorist organization who, being natural pacifists, have yet to commit any actual acts of terrorism. Woodruff (right) chats with a local Professor Azimuth, an eminent political and scientific human personality known for his work on manipulating the aging process of cells, sympathizes with the plight of the Bouzouks and becomes determined to help end their oppression. In his research, he discovers the legend of the Schnibble, a mystical entity that is believed to have the ability to cause peace and prosperity to flourish in times of need, and begins work on finding a way to unleash it. Word spreads about his goal, and Azimuth is hailed as a hero by the Bouzouk community. Unfortunately, word of the Schnibble also reaches the ears of the BigWig. To stave off any chance of a revolution, the BigWig and his thugs storm the home of Professor Azimuth and his young adopted half-human, half-Bouzouk son, Woodruff.

Azimuth barely has time to hide Woodruff before the BigWig breaks into their home, kidnapping the Professor and ruthlessly gunning down Woodruff's beloved teddy bear in the process, but not before befitting him with a Viblefrotzer, an invention of his own design that helps rapidly speed the aging process. Within seconds, Woodruff ages about fifteen years, finding himself now prepared (albeit without shoes or the ability to read) for an epic quest: rescue his adopted father, avenge the death of his teddy bear by exacting revenge on the BigWig, and unravel the mystery of the Schnibble to help bring harmony back to the city.

Buffy arrives at school in a car with Cameron, a member of the Razorbacks swim team. He makes persistent and unwelcome sexual advances, so Buffy slams his head against the steering wheel. Giles informs Buffy that the remains of Dodd, another swim team-member, were found on the beach after a party. The Scooby Gang try to determine what killed him. Xander bumps into Cameron, who rubs his elite status in Xander's face. After Cameron goes to the cafeteria for a snack, Xander hears him scream. Investigating, Xander finds: a ransacked cafeteria; Cameron's skin; a gill monster (humanoid sea-creature).

In the library, Cordelia sketches the creature that Xander saw. Buffy and Willow return, having been informed that Cameron and Dodd were the Razorbacks' two best swimmers; after them was Gage. Having little else to go on, Buffy shadows Gage as the potential next target. At the Bronze that night, Gage confronts Buffy about her following him; she tells him that he may be in danger. He does not believe her and leaves, only to be attacked by Angelus in the parking lot. Buffy fights off the vampire, noting as she does that Angelus was spitting out Gage's blood rather than drinking it.

The following day, Buffy and Willow and Cordelia sit in on swim practice. They discuss Angelus' behavior, and speculate that the swim team may be taking steroids—which repel vampires, but attract gill monsters. Xander joins the swim team in order to get information from places the girls would not have access to.

Buffy hears Gage cry out in pain; she finds him and a teammate in the locker room, transforming into two more of the creatures. Both monsters attack and wound Buffy; just in time, Marin enters and chases them off. Buffy and Giles tell Coach Marin that members of his team are not being killed by the creatures, but are transforming into them. Meanwhile, Xander tries to find out what drug his teammates are taking, and how to get it. He finds out that the "steroids" are being pumped in with the sauna-steam; Xander is inhaling it as they speak.

It is revealed that Nurse Greenliegh is a co-conspirator with Marin; they have been conducting experiments on the swim team with fish DNA, in order to enhance the Razorbacks' performance. When Nurse Greenliegh insists they end the experiments, Marin forces her into an open grate leading to the sewers. The creatures attack and kill her.

Buffy confronts Marin, but he forces her at gunpoint into the sewer. She is fighting the gill monsters when Xander enters, disarms and knocks out Marin. Xander just has time to rescue Buffy from the sewer before Marin revives and bashes Xander's head in with a large wrench. Marin swings at Buffy next but misses and falls into the sewer. Being no match for the gill monsters in their own element, Buffy can only look on from above as Marin's own creatures rip him to pieces. Xander and the surviving Razorbacks are given treatments to undo the effects of the inhaled mutagen. Meanwhile, the fully-transformed gill monsters head off to the open ocean, never to be seen again.

Part 1

Giles visits a museum to examine a big stone block that it has just acquired; he finds an opening in the rock.

Buffy and Willow find the floppy disk containing Jenny Calendar's reconstruction of the curse that gave Angelus his soul. They are eager to attempt it so they can get Angel back. Giles warns that it will be difficult. Xander prefers to see Angelus killed, rather than risk leaving him alive merely so that Buffy can have a chance to get her boyfriend back.

Drusilla kills the museum curator while Angelus and his minions steal the stone block, which contains the demon Acathla, who came to suck the world into Hell. A virtuous knight had stabbed him in the heart before he could draw a breath, but someone worthy can remove the sword to awaken Acathla. Angelus wants to use Acathla to destroy the world.

Kendra, the new Slayer, returns to Sunnydale bringing a sword blessed by the same knight who stopped Acathla.

Angelus kills a human and uses his blood in an attempt to awaken Acathla, which fails. He then lures Buffy to a battle in the cemetery. In the library, Willow is attempting the curse when vampires attack. During the fight that ensues Xander is injured and Willow is knocked unconscious under a bookcase while Drusilla hypnotizes and kills Kendra, after which she and her fellow vampires kidnap Giles. Buffy arrives too late, and a policeman finds her with Kendra's body.

Flashbacks

Galway, Ireland 1753: Liam, drunk as usual, is sired by Darla, becoming the sadistic vampire known as Angelus. London, 1860: Drusilla, a pious young woman who has unwanted visions, is psychologically tormented before being sired by Angelus. Romanian woods, 1898: In revenge for killing an unnamed Kalderash girl, Angelus is cursed with his human soul and becomes Angel. Manhattan, New York 1996: Angel, now a derelict, meets a benevolent demon named Whistler who invites him to become a hero. *Los Angeles, 1996: As Buffy becomes the Slayer, Whistler points her out to Angel, who is inspired "to be somebody."

Part 2

Angelus tortures Giles for information and entertainment. Buffy finds Whistler in Giles' apartment and they discuss Angel's reversion to Angelus. He reveals that Angel was destined to stop Acathla, not awaken him.

Buffy is nearly arrested, but Spike attacks the policeman and offers a temporary alliance. He has no wish to see the world destroyed, and is jealous of Angelus' attentions to Drusilla; he will help Buffy stop Angelus if she allows him and Drusilla to leave town. Buffy and Spike go to her house to talk, but meet Joyce. Buffy is forced to tell her about her role as a vampire slayer. Joyce tells her daughter not to come back if she leaves the house. Buffy leaves anyway.

Xander sits by the comatose Willow and confesses his love for her. She wakes up, but the first person she asks for is Oz. Willow is determined to try the curse again. She sends Xander to tell Buffy her plans, hoping she can stall until the curse is complete.

Buffy goes to the library to retrieve Kendra's sword. She encounters Snyder, who gleefully announces that she is expelled. Spike returns to the mansion, concealing that he is well enough to walk. To keep Angelus from killing Giles, Spike suggests that Drusilla use hypnosis. She appears to Giles as Jenny, and he tells her that Angelus is the key. He must use his own blood, not someone else's, to awaken Acathla.

Buffy returns to Whistler, who tells her that if Angelus has awoken Acathla, only Angelus' blood can again defeat him, in the process sending both evil beings to hell. On her way to the mansion she meets Xander, who decides not to pass on Willow's message.

In the mansion, Buffy announces her arrival by decapitating a minion. Spike surprises Angelus from behind, knocking him unconscious and proceeding to beat him brutally. To his dismay, Drusilla sides with her sire, defending Angelus and attacking Spike. Xander frees the injured Giles and they escape as Spike and Buffy fight against Drusilla and the remaining minions. Angelus regains his senses and removes the sword from Acathla; he and Buffy swordfight. Spike knocks Drusilla unconscious and escapes with her in his car, leaving Sunnydale. Angelus overpowers Buffy and continues to torment her.

At the hospital, just as Willow appears close to fainting, she suddenly regains strength and begins incanting in Romanian. She succeeds in restoring Angel's soul just as Buffy is about to kill Angelus. Buffy realizes that Angel is back and embraces him. She then sees that Acathla is awake as it opens its mouth and creates an expanding vortex. When Angel, oblivious to the vortex opening behind him, questions what happened and where he is, Buffy kisses him, professes her love and then drives her sword through him into the vortex. Angel is sucked into the closing hellish vortex and the world is saved. Distraught at losing her lover, being kicked out of her home and expelled from school, and now becoming a wanted fugitive in Kendra's death, Buffy departs from Sunnydale on a bus, while her friends regroup at school unsure if or when she will return.

In the story, a man (Victor Kemmings) regains consciousness during a failed attempt at cryosleep on board a spaceship. The ship's artificial intelligence cannot repair the malfunction and cannot wake him, so Kemmings is doomed to remain conscious but paralyzed through the ship's entire ten-year-long journey. To maintain his sanity, the A.I. replays Kemmings's memories to him. But when this goes awry, the ship's A.I. asks Kemmings what he wants most -- and the answer is that Kemming wants the trip to be over and to arrive at his new home. The A.I. constructs such a scenario for Kemming and plays it to him over and over for the next ten years. When the ship finally arrives at its destination, Kemming cannot accept reality and believes his arrival to be yet another construction.

Like most of Philip K. Dick's work, ''I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon'' involves a questioning of what it is to be human and of what reality is. The story also has a theme of guilt, as the memories of the passenger are spoiled by the guilt he retains about his past actions.

Category:Short stories by Philip K. Dick Category:Existentialist short stories Category:1980 short stories Category:Works originally published in Playboy

In 1949, the young Ida Nørregaard travels from Jutland to Copenhagen to enroll in a home-economics school and an evening-school programme. When she is told that she can not do both, she chooses the evening school.

Her parents are unhappy with her choice, but Ida is determined on making it on her own in the big city. She finds a job as a secretary at a radio factory. Erik Nielsen, the director's son, soon starts developing feelings towards Ida, which causes her to lose her job.

While Erik is trying to convince his father of the future of television, he also succeeds in attracting Ida's attention. Meanwhile, Søs Nielsen, Erik's lively sister, is engaged to a man she does not love. When he tries to rape her one night, she is helped by Palle From who is a working-class university student and lives next door to Ida. When Søs approaches him to thank him for his deed, an attraction starts to grow between them.

A counterfeiter of money is attacked by two masked men and threatened to reveal where a certain amount of counterfeit money is. The counterfeiter pleads ignorance and is subsequently killed. Tommy 'Hopscotch' Hopkins, who has the money, learns of the death of the counterfeiter and begins to fear for his own safety. Consequently, he asks his friend, the street smart and "seasoned former criminal" Frankie (who owns a strip club), to assist him in an exchange of the fake money for real money which he has organised with some acquaintances. Frankie reluctantly agrees to assist his friend. During the exchange, an undercover police officer, Danny, is killed in a shootout. The shootout is witnessed by Danny's sister Colleen, who was hiding in the house. Distraught, she mistakenly believes that Frankie killed her brother. Colleen becomes frustrated with her ex-boyfriend, Vic, whose investigation into Danny's murder proceeds slowly, and decides to undertake her own investigation.

In the opening scene, secret agent Rock Slag, who is physically identical to Fred Flintstone, is being chased through Bedrock. His pursuers, Ali and Bobo, think that they have finally killed Slag when they push him off a building. Meanwhile, the Flintstones and Rubbles prepare for a camping vacation which includes trying to drop Dino and Hoppy off at the veterinarian. On the way back, Fred crashes Barney's car, and they make a stop at the hospital where Rock Slag is also recovering. After Ali and Bobo find Rock and put him out of commission, Chief Boulder of the Secret Service enlists Fred to take his place in Paris for a special meeting. His assignment is to meet Tanya, the #1 female lieutenant of master criminal the Green Goose, who has agreed to turn over the Green Goose in return for a chance to meet the irresistible Rock Slag. Rock is not sure that this is such a good idea but the Chief reassures him that he will keep an eye on Fred.

Thinking that the Green Goose is an actual bird, Fred tells his family that their vacation has become an all-expense-paid trip to Eurock. Barney and Fred return all the camping gear and use the money to buy the Rubbles tickets to go along. Meanwhile, Ali and Bobo make several attempts on Fred's life assuming that he is Rock Slag. Once in Paris, the Chief tells Fred that he must now go to Rome instead, with the help of master of disguise Triple X. Fred makes attempts to sneak away from Wilma to meet with Tanya, but ends up spending the night trying to escape all of Rock's female admirers. After missing a date with Wilma, Fred buys her a "genuine imitation diamond necklace" from a street hustler to make it up to her, but finds that she slept soundly through the night without even realizing that he was missing.

Discovering the Chief's secret office, Fred tries to back out of his assignment but after finding out what the Green Goose really is, he has pangs of guilt over Pebbles' future and makes an excuse to get away and meet Tanya at a restaurant. Unfortunately, Wilma and the Rubbles go to the same restaurant and catch them together - thinking that Fred is having an affair. Rock actually shows up to replace Fred, but gets mistakenly pounded by an angry Wilma, Betty and Barney and ends up out of commission again. Tanya then leads Fred to the Green Goose (whose hideout is at an abandoned amusement park), but he is unaware that the Chief has been taken out by Ali and Bobo, so he has no back-up. Barney, meanwhile, has followed Fred to see what this is all about, and they both end up captured by the Green Goose. Barney is tortured in an effort to get Fred, who is believed to be Rock, to give him secret information. Fred refuses to talk, despite Barney's torture.

The Green Goose, who is revealed to be Triple X, makes plans to launch his deadly inter-rockinental missile, which is disguised as the park's space ride. Fred and Barney accidentally lock themselves inside the missile until the Green Goose overhears that Fred has an "expensive" necklace on him. When he offers to release them in exchange for it and opens the door, the boys turn the tables on Triple X and lock him in the missile with Ali, Bobo and Tanya—with the target now reset for outer space, sending them all to an unknown fate.

A huge welcome home ceremony is held in Bedrock for the return of Fred, now considered a hero, but he is just grateful to be back home with his family (after the restaurant mishap is cleared), who head on a secret getaway. Unfortunately, Roberta, one of Rock's admirers whom Fred met in Rome, and her brother Mario have secretly moved into Bedrock, and they chase Fred all over town, much to the confusion of Wilma, Barney, and Betty.

A friar went to preach in a marshy region of Yorkshire called Holderness. In his sermons he begged for donations for the church and afterward he begged for charity from the local residents. The Friar interrupts the story, calling the Summoner a liar, but is silenced by the Host.

The friar in the story continued to beg house by house until he came to the house of Thomas, a local resident who normally indulged him, and found him ill. The friar spoke of the sermon he had given that day, commenting on the excellent way he had glossed the biblical text (and making the famous comment that "Glosynge is a glorious thyng") – and essentially ordered a meal from Thomas's wife.

She told the friar that her child had died recently. The friar claimed that he had a revelation that her child had died and entered heaven. He claimed that his fellow friars had a similar vision, for they are more privy to God's messages than laymen, who live richly on earth, as opposed to spiritual riches. The friar claimed that, among the clergy, only friars remain impoverished and thus are closest to God; and told Thomas that his illness persists because he had given so little to the church.

Thomas claimed that he had indeed given "ful many a pound" to various friars, but never fared the better for it. The friar, characteristically, is irritated that Thomas is not giving all of his money solely to him, and points out to him that a "ferthyng" (a farthing) is not worth anything if split into twelve. Continuing to lecture Thomas, the friar began a long sermon against anger ("ire"), telling the tale of an angry king who sentenced a knight to death, because, as he returned without his partner, the king automatically assumed that the knight had murdered him. When a third knight took the condemned knight to his death, they found the knight that he had supposedly murdered. When they returned to the king to have the sentence reversed, the king sentenced all three to death: the first because he had originally declared it so, the second because he was the cause of the first's death, and the third because he did not obey the king.

Another ireful king, Cambises, was a drunk. When one of his knights claimed that drunkenness caused people to lose their co-ordination, Cambyses drew his bow and arrow and shot the knight's son to prove that he still had control of his reflexes. The friar then told of Cyrus, the Persian king who had the river Gyndes destroyed because one of his horses had drowned in it. At the close of this sermon, the friar asked Thomas for money to build the brothers' cloister. Thomas, annoyed by the friar's hypocrisy, told the friar that he had a gift for him that he was sitting on, but that he would only receive it if he promised to split it up equally between each of the friars.

The friar readily agreed, and put his hand down behind Thomas' back, groping round – and Thomas let out a fart louder than a horse could make. The friar became immediately angry, and promised to repay Thomas for his fart, but, before he could, the servants of the house chased the friar out.

The enraged friar found the lord of the village and told him of the embarrassment he suffered, angrily wondering how he was supposed to divide a fart into twelve. The lord's squire spoke up with a suggestion, in return for a "gowne-clooth" from his master: take a cartwheel, and tell each of twelve friars to lay his nose at the end of a spoke. Then the friar of the tale could sit in the centre of the wheel and fart, and each of the spokes would carry the smell along to the rim – and therefore, divide it up between each of the friars.

Nick Gardenia (Chevy Chase), an out-of-luck writer, has the use of a friend's oceanside cabin in Big Sur, California. He is interrupted by a pair of bank robbers who use him to rob a bank in Carmel. Their M.O. is to take an innocent person, force them at gunpoint to rob a bank, and then take the money and toss their captive out of their car. Unfortunately for Nick (in one of Chase's signature pratfalls), he trips in the bank, is helped up and looks directly into a security camera.

The bank's picture of Nick comes to the attention of Los Angeles district attorney Ira Parks (Charles Grodin) when his assistant, Fred (Robert Guillaume), recognizes it to be Parks' wife's ex-husband. Because of his desire to become the state's attorney general, Ira is frustrated and upset, thinking this could harm his campaign.

Ira's wife, Glenda (Goldie Hawn), is a lawyer herself. A public defender, Glenda often tries to rehabilitate her clients by giving them odd jobs around their house, as with her chauffeur/butler Chester (T. K. Carter). After a long day in court, Glenda comes home to mixed news—joy for Ira's run for Attorney General and surprise when Ira gives her the news about Nick. She wants to defend Nick because of her disbelief that he would ever do such a thing.

The robbers ditch Nick and he desperately begins to make his way to Glenda and Ira's Brentwood home, inadvertently holding up a gas station attendant for candy bars along the way. During a party, Glenda, while searching for one of her dogs, finds Nick hiding in her garage. He begs for help and she tries to get him some food, despite most of the leaders of law enforcement being in her house. Nick explains what happened, but Glenda refuses to help unless he turns himself in. Glenda finally agrees to let him sleep in a guest room over the garage.

The next day Nick decides he wants to go after the guys who did this to him. After some comically close run-ins with the police, Ira, and her feisty maid, Aurora De La Hoya (Yvonne Wilder), Glenda manages to keep anyone from knowing Nick was there. He later robs Glenda of her car but then reappears over her garage, and another confrontation ensues between Ira and Glenda.

Ira soon discovers Nick was telling the truth about the two men who forced him to rob the bank. About to have the governor of California coming to the house for dinner, Glenda must deal with court cases, her maid having foot surgery (which could ruin the party without the governor's favorite dish), and Chester getting drunk in the kitchen. The party takes a hilarious turn when Nick, coming back to turn himself in, ends up serving dinner to the governor, Ira, Glenda, and Fred. The dinner ultimately ends in a fistfight between a jealous Ira and Nick, during which Fred is knocked out.

Nick, Glenda, Ira, Aurora, the dogs and the robbers ultimately end up in the courtroom of Glenda's favorite Judge John Channing (Harold Gould). While the judge is overwhelmed by the happenings in the Parks household, the police bring in the bank robbers. They admit Nick's innocence in exchange for a reduced sentence after getting caught by Aurora and the dogs when they attempted to force her to rob a bank, just like they had done with Nick.

After all is said and done, Nick is free, but he and Glenda still have unresolved feelings. She decides to stay with Ira and kisses Nick good-bye. Some time later, Ira and Glenda decide to take a car trip to forget the recent events. They end up in an accident trying to avoid a cow on the road. Ira breaks his leg, so Glenda has to go for help. She ends up at the only place around: a cabin with all the lights on. Glenda pounds on the door begging for help. The door opens and she discovers the cabin is Nick's.

In 1999 Queens, New York City, young street criminals Tommy "Buns" Brown (DMX) and Sincere ("Sin") (Nas), along with associates Mark and Black, murder five people during a violent nightclub robbery. After celebrating with the gang, Sincere returns home to his girlfriend Tionne (Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins) and infant daughter Kenya.

The following morning, Tommy asks Sincere to help him sell a new form of heroin. Sincere, who has begun having second thoughts about his life of crime, reluctantly agrees. Tommy then visits Ox, a wealthy Jamaican drug lord, who agrees to obtain the heroin on the condition that Tommy repay him with a favor at a later date.

In Mark's grandmother's basement, the gang convenes to discuss the nascent drug operation; one of Tommy's associates, Knowledge (Oliver "Power" Grant), will be involved in the operation. Knowledge tells Tommy over the phone that Black had been talking about robbing Sincere to get his larger share of the loot from the nightclub. Enraged, Tommy forces Black to strip naked in front of the others, firing a handgun wildly into the floor.

The gang begins transporting heroin from Queens to Omaha, Nebraska, where they begin to overrun the local drug business. Big Head Rico (Tyrin Turner), an Omaha dealer, informs the police of their activities. The resulting raid at their stash-house ends with Mark's death and Knowledge's arrest. Knowledge angrily realizes that Tommy will not bail him out of jail, and calls Shameek, a.k.a. Father Sha (Method Man), to both infiltrate Rico's gang and kill Tommy. Shameek confronts Rico at a strip club and guns him down when he tries to flee. He is shot by the bartender and stumbles out of the club. He evades the police.

Tommy travels to Jamaica and repays Ox by killing Sosa, the son of a local drug lord. Back home, Tommy's girlfriend Keisha (Taral Hicks) is arrested by police and later bailed out by Tionne. Tommy finds out about the raid and leaves town. Pelpa, a close friend of Sosa, finds out that Ox ordered the hit on Sosa. Pelpa sends a hit squad to kill Ox in his home. Ox kills most of the hitmen before dying at the hands of a female assassin.

Sincere prepares to leave the drug trade and move his family to Africa, planning to leave on New Year's Day 2000. Meanwhile, while laying low in Atlanta, Tommy instigates an argument between Wise and LaKid, two marijuana dealers, which ends with both men to drawing their guns and LaKid shooting Wise. After being arrested over the shooting, Tommy is coerced by a shadowy organization with unclear motives into assassinating a Black Muslim leader, Rev. Saviour, (Benjamin Chavis) during a sermon on New Year's Eve. Tionne comes home and finds herself confronted by Shameek, who demands the whereabouts of Sincere and Tommy.

While Sincere talks to a friend (AZ) outside a barbershop, Black shoots him in the leg as revenge for his earlier humiliation. Sincere kills Black and his accomplice in self-defense before fleeing the scene. On New Year's Eve, Tommy confronts Rev. Saviour before his scheduled speech and points his gun at him. Saviour convinces Tommy not to go through with his mission, even though this will put his life at risk.

A tearful Tommy agrees, and the two men embrace. Shameek visits Keisha's home, in the hopes of finding Tommy there. He assaults Keisha, who gets hold of Shameek's gun and shoots him in the face. Sincere, now in Africa with his family, reflects on recent events and is happy to start a new life.

Act I

The musical opens in Marietta, Georgia, in the time of the American Civil War. The sounds of drums herald the appearance of a young Confederate soldier, bidding farewell to his sweetheart as he goes to fight for his homeland. The years pass and suddenly it is 1913. The young soldier has become an old one-legged veteran who is preparing to march in the annual Confederate Memorial Day parade ("The Old Red Hills of Home"). As the Parade begins ("The Dream of Atlanta"), Leo Frank, a Yankee Jew from Brooklyn, NYC, is deeply uncomfortable in the town in which he works and lives, feeling out of place due to his Judaism and his college education ("How Can I Call This Home?"). His discomfort is present even in his relationship with his wife, Lucille, who has planned an outdoor meal spoiled by Leo's decision to go into work on a holiday. Meanwhile, two local teens, Frankie Epps and Mary Phagan, ride a trolley car and flirt. Frankie wants Mary to go to the picture show with him, but Mary playfully resists, insisting her mother will not let her ("The Picture Show"). Mary leaves to collect her pay from the pencil factory managed by Leo.

While Leo is at work, Lucille bemoans the state of their marriage, believing herself unappreciated by a man so wrapped up in himself. She reflects on her unfulfilled life and wonders whether or not Leo was the right match for her ("Leo at Work" / "What Am I Waiting For?"). Mary Phagan arrives in Leo's office to collect her paycheck. That night, police Detective Starnes and Officer Ivey rouse Leo from his sleep, and without telling him why, demand he accompany them to the factory, where Mary's body has been found raped and murdered in the basement. The Police immediately suspect Newt Lee, the African-American night watchman who discovered the body ("Interrogation"). Throughout his interrogation, he maintains his innocence, but inadvertently directs Starnes' suspicion upon Leo, who did not answer his telephone when Lee called him to report the incident. Leo is arrested, but not charged, and Mrs. Phagan, Mary's mother, becomes aware of Mary's death.

Across town, a reporter named Britt Craig is informed about Mary's murder and sees the possibility of a career-making story ("Big News"). Craig attends Mary's funeral, where the townspeople of Marietta are angry, mournful, and baffled by the tragedy that has so unexpectedly shattered the community. ("There is a Fountain" / "It Don't Make Sense"). Frankie Epps swears revenge on Mary's killer, as does Tom Watson, a writer for ''The Jeffersonian'', an extremist right-wing newspaper ("Tom Watson's Lullaby") who has taken a special interest in the case. In the meantime, Governor John Slaton pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Dorsey, an ambitious politician with a "lousy conviction record", resolves to find the murderer. Dorsey, along with Starnes and Ivey interrogate Newt Lee, but they get no information. Dorsey releases Newt, reasoning that "hanging another Nigra ain't enough this time. We gotta do better." He then attaches the blame to Leo Frank and sends Starnes and a reluctant Ivey out to find eyewitnesses ("Something Ain't Right"). Craig exalts in his opportunity to cover a "real" story and begins an effective campaign vilifying Leo. ("Real Big News").

Leo meets with his lawyer, Luther Z. Rosser, who vows to "win this case, and send him home". Meanwhile, Dorsey makes a deal with factory janitor and ex-convict Jim Conley to testify against Leo in exchange for immunity for a previous escape from prison. Lucille, hounded by reporters, collapses from the strain and privately rebukes Craig when he attempts to get an interview ("You Don't Know This Man"). She tells her husband that she cannot bear to see his trial, but he begs her to stay in the courtroom, as her not appearing would make him look guilty.

The trial of Leo Frank begins, presided over by Judge Roan. A hysterical crowd gathers outside the courtroom, as Tom Watson spews invective ("Hammer of Justice") and Hugh Dorsey begins the case for the prosecution ("Twenty Miles from Marietta"). The prosecution produces a series of witnesses, most of whom give trumped evidence which was clearly fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie Epps testifies, falsely, that Mary mentioned that Leo "looks at her funny" when they last spoke, a sentiment echoed verbatim by three of Mary's teenage co-workers, Lola, Essie, and Monteen ("The Factory Girls"). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer of their testimony ("Come Up to My Office"). Testimony is heard from Mary's mother ("My Child Will Forgive Me") and Minnie McKnight before the prosecution's star witness, Jim Conley, takes the stand, claiming that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo cover up the crime ("That's What He Said"). Leo is desperate. As prosecutor Hugh Dorsey whips the observers and jurors at the trial into a frenzy, Leo is given the opportunity to deliver a statement. Leo offers a heartfelt speech, pleading to be believed ("It's Hard to Speak My Heart"), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant cakewalk as Lucille and Leo embrace, terrified ("Summation and Cakewalk").

Act II

It's now 1914 and Leo has begun his process of appeal. The trial has been noted by the press in the north, and the reaction is strongly disapproving of the way in which it was conducted, but the African-American domestics wonder if the reaction would have been as strong if the victim had been black ("A Rumblin' and a Rollin'"). Lucille tries to help Leo with his appeal, but reveals crucial information to Craig, provoking an argument between Leo and Lucille ("Do it Alone"). Lucille then finds Governor Slaton at a party ("Pretty Music") and attempts to advocate for Leo. She accuses him of either being a fool or a coward if he accepts the outcome of the trial as is. Meanwhile, Tom Watson approaches Hugh Dorsey and tells him that he will support his bid for governor should he choose to make it. Dorsey and Judge Roan go on a fishing trip, where they discuss the political climate and the upcoming election ("The Glory").

The governor agrees to re-open the case, and Leo and Lucille rejoice ("This Is Not Over Yet"). Slaton visits the factory girls, who admit to their exaggeration (“Factory Girls (Reprise)”), and Minnie, who claims that Dorsey intimidated her and made her sign a statement (“Minnie McKnight's Reprise”). Slaton also visits Jim Conley, who is back in jail as an accessory to the murder, who refuses to change his story despite the noticeable inconsistencies with the evidence, and along with his Chain Gang, does not give any information, much to the chagrin of Slaton ("Blues: Feel the Rain Fall"). A year later, after much consideration, he agrees to commute Leo's sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, a move that effectively ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot ("Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?").

Leo has been transferred to a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her ("All the Wasted Time"). After Lucille departs from the prison, a party of masked men (including Starnes, Ivey, Frankie Epps, the Fulton Tower guard and the Old Confederate Soldier) arrives and kidnaps Leo. They take him to Marietta and demand he confess to the murder on pain of death. Leo refuses, and although Ivey is convinced of his innocence, the rest of group is determined to kill him. As his last request, Leo has a sack tied around his waist, since he is wearing only his nightshirt, and gives his wedding ring to Ivey to be given to Lucille. The group hangs him from an oak tree ("Sh'ma"). In 1916, a remorseful Britt Craig gives Leo's ring, which has been delivered to him anonymously, to Lucille. He is surprised to discover that she has no plans to leave Georgia, which is now governed by Dorsey, but she refuses to let Leo's ordeal be for nothing. Alone, she gives in to her grief, but she takes comfort in believing that Leo is with God and free from his ordeal. The Confederate Memorial Day Parade begins again ("Finale").

Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a recently retired tennis professional from Ireland, is taken on as an instructor at an upmarket club in London. He strikes up a friendship with a wealthy pupil, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), after discovering their common affinity for opera. Tom's older sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), is smitten with Chris, and the two begin dating. During a family gathering, Chris meets Tom's American fiancée, Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), and they are instantly attracted to each other. Tom's mother, Eleanor, does not approve of her son's relationship with Nola, a struggling actress. This is a source of tension in the family. Chloe persuades her father, Alec, to give Chris a job as an executive in one of his companies. Alec does so, and Chris begins to be accepted into the family, and marriage is discussed.

One afternoon, Nola's choice of profession is questioned by Eleanor, and Nola leaves the house in anger during a rainstorm. Chris follows Nola outside and confesses his feelings for her, and they passionately have sex in a wheat field. Feeling guilty, Nola treats this as an accident. Chris, however, wants an ongoing clandestine relationship. Chris and Chloe marry, while Tom ends his relationship with Nola.

Chloe, to her distress, does not become pregnant immediately. Chris vainly tries to track down Nola, but meets her by chance sometime later at Tate Modern. He discreetly asks for her number, and they begin an affair. While Chris is spending time with his wife's family, Nola calls to inform him that she is pregnant. Panicked, Chris asks her to get an abortion, but she refuses, saying that she wants to raise the child with him. Chris becomes distant from Chloe, who suspects he is having an affair, which he denies. Nola urges Chris to divorce his wife, and he feels trapped and finds himself lying to Chloe as well as to Nola. Nola confronts him on the street outside his apartment and he just barely escapes public detection.

Soon afterwards, Chris takes a shotgun from his father-in-law's home and carries it to his office in a tennis bag. After leaving the office, he calls Nola on her mobile to tell her he has good news for her. He goes to Nola's building and gains entry into the apartment of her neighbor, Mrs. Eastby, whom he shoots and kills and then stages a burglary by ransacking the rooms and stealing jewelry and drugs. As Nola returns, he shoots her in the stairwell. Chris then takes a taxi to the theater to watch a musical with Chloe. Scotland Yard investigates the crime and concludes it was likely committed by a drug addict stealing money. The following day, as the murder is in the news, Chris returns the shotgun and he and Chloe announce that she is pregnant.

Detective Mike Banner invites Chris for an interview in relation to the murder. Before he goes in to see the detectives, Chris throws Mrs. Eastby's jewelry and drugs into the river, but by chance her ring bounces on the railing and falls to the pavement. This imagery ties in to the opening scene when a tennis ball hits the net, but bounces back, and the narrator (Chris) says, "The man who said, 'I'd rather be lucky than good,' saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn't, and you lose."

At the police station, Chris lies about his relationship with Nola, but Banner surprises him with her diary, in which he is featured extensively. He confesses his affair but denies any link to the murder, and appeals to the detectives not to involve him further in their investigation as news of the affair may end his marriage just as he and his wife are expecting a baby.

One night, Chris sees apparitions of Nola and Mrs. Eastby, who tell him to be ready for the consequences of his actions. He replies that his crimes, though wrong, had been "necessary", and that he is able to suppress his guilt. The same night, Banner dreams that Chris committed the murders.

The next morning, however, his theory is discredited by his partner, Dowd, who informs him that a drug addict found murdered on the streets had Mrs. Eastby's ring in his pocket. Banner and Dowd consider the case closed and abandon any further investigation. Chloe gives birth to a baby boy named Terence, and his uncle blesses him not with greatness but with luck.

Ever since they were babies, brothers Chaos and Havoc enjoyed playing war games with each other and their classmates, and expanding their knowledge of military tactics. One day, Chaos discovers a rare comic book more valuable than any of the books in their ever-growing library, and shows it to Havoc. Unfortunately, this proves to be a mistake, as the mere sight of it brings out his greedy and treacherous side. Havoc tries to take the book for himself, but it rips apart in a tug-of-war. After this, the two brothers blame each other, and grow apart. Years later, they both become military dictators of the fictional countries of Moronica (Chaos) and Viceria (Havoc). The two generals war with each other for decades, but for all the battles that rage across the land, they cannot achieve victory. After days of consideration, they come to the decision of using smaller, quicker armies of soldiers all specializing in a particular kind of weapon to settle the score permanently.

Several years prior to the main plot, Takeo Saeki murders his wife Kayako after discovering she is in love with another man, also killing the family cat, Mar, and his son, Toshio. The murders create a curse that revives the family as vengeful ghosts, with Kayako's ghost murdering Takeo. Whoever enters their house in Nerima, Tokyo, is eventually consumed by the curse, which spreads to the place they die in and in turn consumes anyone who comes in.

The latest owners of the house are the Tokunaga family, consisting of salaryman Katsuya, his wife Kazumi, and his ill mother Sachie. Kazumi is quickly consumed by the curse, and Katsuya is emotionally affected by Takeo's personality before dying too. Katsuya's sister Hitomi dies shortly after Kayako's spirit follows her to her office and then her apartment.

Social worker Rika is sent by her boss Hirohashi to care for Sachie. She discovers Toshio, and witnesses Sachie being killed by Kayako's ghost, causing her to faint. Hirohashi finds Rika and contacts the police. Detectives Nakagawa and Igarashi discover Katsuya's and Kazumi's bodies in the attic, and later learn of Hitomi's disappearance and the death of a security guard at her workplace. Hirohashi's body is discovered, and Rika is haunted by the ghosts.

Upon researching the history of the house and the Saeki murders, Nakagawa and Igarashi contact a retired detective named Toyama, who is afraid of revisiting the case. Toyama goes to burn the house down but hears a group of teenage girls upstairs. One flees while the others are consumed. Kayako appears, chasing Toyama away but killing Nakagawa and Igarashi. Toyama eventually dies, leaving behind a daughter named Izumi. As a teenager, Izumi went to the house with her friends but fled while her friends were killed by Kayako; this was the event Toyama witnessed in the past.

Izumi is wrought with guilt for abandoning her friends and becomes increasingly paranoid and unstable. Two of her other friends visit her and discover Izumi and her dead friends have their eyes blackened out in photos. Izumi encounters a vision of her dead father, then discovers the ghosts of her friends watching her. She is cornered by her dead friends, only for Kayako to appear and drag her into damnation.

Some time after visiting the house, Rika has moved on with her life. Her friend Mariko, an elementary school teacher, pays a visit to Toshio, who is registered as her student but has never shown up for class. Rika races to save her but is too late. Kayako's ghost comes after her, and Rika witnesses Kayako briefly take on her appearance. She realizes that she is doomed to play out the curse and the same fate as Kayako. With Toshio watching from the banisters, Takeo’s ghost descends the stairs and kills her.

In the deserted Tokyo streets, many missing persons posters lie on the ground. Rika's corpse, now with a much longer hairstyle similar to Kayako, lies in the house's attic, only to reawaken with a death rattle.

''Tecmo's Deception'' plays out in a medieval fantasy setting. The player is in the role of the eldest prince of Zemekia, who is player-named. The prince has returned from a visit to Angelio, where he fell in love with and became engaged to Princess Fiana. Upon being reunited with his son, the king of Zemekia begins to announce his intention to abdicate in order to allow the player character to assume the throne and revitalize the kingdom. Alarmed, the court magician Zamur summons the prince's sword, causing it to kill the king before he can finish the announcement. The prince's younger brother, Yurias, blames the king's murder on the player character.

The player character is sentenced to death. Consumed with hatred not only for Yurias and Zamur for framing him, but for the entire people of Zemekia for not believing in his innocence, from the gallows he pleas for power to get revenge on the world. A bolt of lightning seemingly incinerates him, but in fact teleports him to the Castle of the Damned at the will of a demon named Astarte. She invites him to become the castle's new master so that he can make a deal with Satan for the power he seeks.

Once inside the Castle of the Damned, the player character is beset by its master, Ardebaran. He is saved by Idorigo, a warrior seeking vengeance on Ardebaran for the murder of his friend. Ardebaran finds the player character again, but is caught off-guard by a trap he did not set (presumably placed by Astarte). The player character kills him and takes from him the ring symbolizing his contract with Satan. At Astarte's directions, he then captures and kills Idorigo, proving he is merciless enough to be the castle's master.

The Castle of the Damned is beset by adventurers, petitioners, and later assassins, once Yurias learns that his brother is still alive. The player character kills them while collecting six magical treasures needed to unseal Satan in fulfillment of his contract. In the absence of the rightful heir, Yurias has claimed the throne and is coercing Fiana to marry him, insinuating that he will have her executed as a co-conspirator with his brother if she refuses. Fiana writes a letter imploring the player character to return to her. He does not send a reply, and Fiana's messenger is found murdered outside the Castle of the Damned (depending on the player's actions, either by the player character or by one of Yurias's assassins). Despite this, after escaping from Yurias's palace she enters the Castle of the Damned and tells the player character she is willing to stay with him despite the horrors of his new dwelling.

Yurias sends a wizard to kill Fiana. To save her, the player character must kill the wizard in two hours and five minutes (roughly equivalent to 62 seconds in real time). If the player character saves Fiana, she is horrified at the sight of him killing the wizard and leaves him.

Frustrated at the repeated failures of their assassins, Yurias and Zamur attack the player character personally. After the player character slays Yurias, Zamur tells him that he and Astarte have been manipulating him from the beginning into collecting the magical treasures so that Zamur can summon Satan and use his powers to control him. Seeking aid from the "Legendary Braves" who sealed Satan away, the player character uses one of the treasures to travel back in time. There he meets an ancestor of his, one of the Legendary Braves. The player character can either kill him to acquire a special trap that can stop Astarte, or tell him that he comes from the future seeking help to seal Satan again, in which case he gives the player character the trap freely.

Returning to the present, the player character is confronted by Zamur. Astarte kills Zamur and claims Zamur's earlier assertions were a result of her toying with his mind; the player character coming to the Castle of the Damned was never part of Zamur's plan, and Astarte has always been on the player character's side, not Zamur's. She then instructs him to revive Satan.

The game branches into six endings depending on the player character's actions: If he saves Fiana and seals away Satan, Fiana arrives and says he must still make recompense for the sins he committed as master of the castle. She accompanies him on a journey across the land, anonymously helping people in need. If he saves Fiana and seals away Satan, but kills his ancestor, Fiana instead tells him she will always love him, kills him with a dagger, and then commits suicide. If he fails to save Fiana and seals away Satan, his ancestor convinces him to return to the past with him and try to change the future so that attempted revivals of Satan never occur. If he fails to save Fiana and kills his ancestor, but seals away Satan, he undertakes the same redemptive quest as in the first ending, but alone. If he lies to his ancestor, claiming he wants to seal away Satan, and elects to revive Satan instead, his ancestor follows him to the present, kills Astarte, and shatters the demonic portal, averting Satan's revival. The player character is condemned to subsisting on the souls of castle intruders for the rest of his life. If he kills his ancestor and opts to revive Satan, Astarte reveals that to do so he must offer himself as a human sacrifice. After the player character kills himself, Satan is freed and lays waste to the world, destroying even himself in his rage.

FBI Special Agent Victoria McPherson is investigating a series of brutal murders in 2004 Chicago. While visiting her father for Christmas she discovers an old notebook that belonged to her grandfather, private investigator Gustav McPherson. Victoria is surprised to learn that Gus had been involved with investigating a very similar series of murders in 1920s Prague. The player alternates between these two characters as they work to hunt down what seems to be the same serial killer more than 70 years apart.

In both cases the murderer targets sex trade workers: street prostitutes in Prague, and employees of an exclusive Chicago massage parlor and S&M club called the Red Lantern. The killer or killers are disguised in a dark cloak, top hat, and silver mask.

Gus eventually identifies the man responsible for the Prague murders, but the killer escapes justice and relocates to America. Near the end of the game Victoria discovers that similar murders occurred in 1931 Chicago and later in 1956 Los Angeles.

The identity of the 2004 Chicago killer is never revealed. Victoria encounters him several times, but never sees behind his mask. She does not believe he is the same person as the Prague killer, but rather a younger person who has been influenced by the Prague killer in some way. At the climax of the game, Victoria manages to shoot the Chicago killer, but he plunges into the Chicago river and does not surface. As the game ends, the Chicago police are still searching the river for the killer's body. Victoria plans to travel to Los Angeles to learn more about the 1956 killings.

A controversy surrounding the game is its lack of an ending. Originally planned as the second of a trilogy, with ''Post Mortem'' as the first, ''Still Life'' ends without revealing the villain. The story was meant to continue in a third game, but it seemed unlikely that the finalé would ever be made, as part of the development arm of Microïds in Canada was bought out by Ubisoft. However, on December 6, 2007, Microïds announced the development of a sequel, ''Still Life 2'', which was released in 2009. On September 19, 2008 a new ''Still Life'' series website was opened, covering the three games.

Morale Officer Neelix starts a ship-wide information broadcast aboard ''Voyager'' as an attempt to raise crew-morale. However, his initial reports are somewhat downbeat as he shares the news that helmsman Tom Paris (whose conduct has become increasingly erratic through several preceding episodes) is to leave the ship permanently to join a Talaxian convoy.

It emerges that someone on board ''Voyager'' has been sending information to an enemy-race, the Kazon. After Seska and the Kazon abduct Tom Paris from the Talaxian ship, Neelix suggests on his broadcast that it was Paris who had betrayed them all. Captain Janeway privately reveals to Neelix that Paris's insubordination, departure and joining the Kazon was all part of an act to flush out a suspected traitor on board. Commander Chakotay had not been told as it was suspected that the traitor was from the Maquis, a deception that he indicates he is very disappointed by. She asks Neelix to use his new journalistic role to investigate.

Neelix eventually discovers that the real traitor is Michael Jonas, a Maquis engineer. Jonas locks down Engineering, injures Neelix, and attempts to draw ''Voyager'' into a trap laid by Kazon forces. Neelix recovers and attacks Jonas, who falls over a second-floor railing and is disintegrated by plasma leakage below. Tom Paris returns after damaging the Kazon ship and stealing a shuttle. He explains and apologizes to the crew for his recent behavior, revealing that it was a ruse that he and the captain had planned to infiltrate the Kazon and flush out the intruder many weeks ago.

Cornelia Van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead) is a mystery author who rents a summer home in a small town from local bank president John Fleming (Harvey Stephens). Over $1 million in negotiable securities is discovered missing from the bank while Fleming is on a hunting trip with his physician, Dr. Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price). In a cabin in the woods, Fleming confesses to Wells that he stole the securities. He offers to split the money with Wells in return for help faking his own death and threatens to kill him if he doesn't agree to help. When a forest fire breaks out nearby, Wells shoots Fleming and uses the fire to cover up the murder.

Meanwhile, the town is being terrorized by a mysterious murderer known as "the Bat", said to be a man with no face who murders women at night by ripping out their throats with steel claws. Van Gorder's assistant Lizzie (Lenita Lane) tells her all the servants, except the chauffeur, have quit in fear. As they lock up the house that night Lizzie sees the Bat's clawed hand reaching through an unlocked window. Van Gorder calls the police, who promise to send officers to investigate. The Bat breaks into the house and releases a bat, which bites Lizzie. Lizzie fears she may have contracted rabies. Van Gorder calls for Dr. Wells to treat the bite.

Wells is in his laboratory, doing experiments on bats. The local chief of detectives, Lieutenant Andy Anderson (Gavin Gordon), is watching through a window. When Wells leaves to answer Van Gorder's call, Anderson breaks into the laboratory and searches it. Wells checks Lizzie's wound and catches the bat that bit her. Anderson arrives shortly after and says an officer will watch the house for the rest of the night.

Van Gorder is visited by Wells, Dale Bailey (Elaine Edwards), and Judy Hollander (Darla Hood). Dale's husband, Victor Bailey (Mike Steele), is a clerk at the bank and the prime suspect in the theft of the securities, having been framed by Fleming; Judy works at the bank and is a witness in his defense. While Anderson is visiting Mark Fleming (John Bryant), the nephew and heir of John Fleming, Van Gorder has Dale call him about blueprints that may show a hiding place in the house. He promises to help her look for them that evening. Meanwhile, Van Gorder has hired new servants and promoted Warner the chauffeur to butler.

While Van Gorder, Judy, and Dale are having dinner, Mark sneaks into the house to look for the blueprints on his own. The Bat kills him and takes the blueprints. Anderson and Wells (who is also the local coroner) arrive to investigate the murder. Anderson questions the women and Van Gorder's new butler, Warner (John Sutton). Anderson tells the women to lock themselves into their rooms for the rest of the night; he will stay to watch for the Bat.

After the women go to bed, Anderson goes into the woods behind the house with a flashlight; Warner follows him. Soon after, the Bat enters the house again. He cuts the phone line and goes to the third floor, where he begins chiseling a hole into one of the walls. Hearing the noise from his chiseling, Dale and Judy go to investigate. The Bat kills Judy and flees the house. Anderson returns, saying he saw a man in the woods. He accuses Warner, whom he recognizes as a suspect for a robbery in Chicago. Warner says he was acquitted. Wells comes to the house, saying he had an accident in his car nearby; Anderson casts suspicion on the doctor as well.

Van Gorder investigates the room the Bat was in, and realizes there is a secret room behind the wall where he was chiseling. She accidentally traps herself in the room, but is freed by Detective Davenport (Robert Williams), the officer assigned to watch the house that evening. Meanwhile, the Bat comes to kill Wells in his laboratory. Wells pulls a gun and taunts the Bat, whose identity Wells seems to know. Wells tells the Bat that ''he'' knows where the money is and that, after the Bat is dead, he (Wells) will collect it. Wells then attempts to shoot the Bat but the other attacks. The two men struggle and Wells is killed. The Bat leaves a fake suicide note to frame Wells as the Bat.

The Bat returns to Van Gorder's house, where he sets the garage on fire to draw the occupants outside. Mystery writer Van Gorder sees through this ruse, however. She has Dale, Lizzie, and Detective Davenport hide and wait for the Bat. When confronted, the Bat, wearing the mask which obscures the outlines of his face (hence his description as "a man with no face") shoots Davenport, though it is unclear how badly, and is about to kill the three women when Warner returns and shoots him dead. Van Gorder unmasks the Bat, who is revealed to be Lieutenant Anderson, whose motives here were pecuniary as he was one of the first people notified of the theft of the bank securities later converted into cash.

The film is set in Puerto Rico, where Charles "Chick" Graham (Nelson) has settled down after the war to run a small business with his old army buddy (now his brother-in-law) Buster Cox (Harvey). Graham comes home one evening to find his wife, Cora (Ainley), acting as if he is an insane stranger.

A man who looks exactly like him, Albert "Bert" Rand (Nelson), has taken his place and is playing cards and drinking in his living room. Neither Cora nor Buster — not even Graham's dog — recognizes Graham; they think that he, rather than Rand, is the double.

Meanwhile, his face has shown up on the front page of newspapers as a bank robber in Miami who made off with half a million dollars. As Graham runs from the police, he attempts to solve the mystery with the help of Mary Davis (Mathews), an old girlfriend whom he jilted to marry Cora. Mary's protective brother, Walt Davis (Warden), is wary, but soon joins Graham in trying to figure out the puzzle.

Rand attempts to kill Graham by hiring an attack dog specialist to have a Doberman Pinscher go after him. The evil double has been in on this sinister plan with Cora and her brother, Buster, since before the Grahams' marriage.

In 1905, in an East European village, a young altar boy (Norman Bacon) discovers the corpse of a young woman crammed inside a church bell, another victim of Count Dracula. One year later, following the events of the previous film, Dracula has been destroyed. Monsignor Ernst Mueller (Rupert Davies) comes to the village on a routine visit only to find the altar boy is now a frightened mute and the priest (Ewan Hooper) has lost his faith. The villagers refuse to attend Mass at the church because the shadow of Dracula's castle touches it. To bring to an end the villagers' fears, Mueller climbs to the castle to exorcise it.

The terrified priest follows only partway up the mountain, and Mueller continues alone. As he exorcises the castle, attaching a large metal cross to its gate, a thunderstorm occurs. The fleeing priest stumbles and is knocked unconscious when his head strikes a rock. The blood from the head wound trickles into a frozen stream through a crack in the ice and onto the lips of Dracula, reviving him. Mueller returns to the village, reassures the villagers, and returns to his home city of Keinenberg, where he lives with his widowed sister-in-law, Anna (Marion Mathie).

Unknown to Mueller, Dracula takes control of the priest. Furious that his castle is now barred to him, Dracula forces the enslaved priest to reveal the name of the exorcist. The priest desecrates a coffin to provide a sleeping place for Dracula and leads him to Keinenberg, where the Count determines to take his revenge on Mueller's beautiful niece, Maria (Veronica Carlson). Dracula enslaves a tavern girl named Zena (Barbara Ewing). Zena almost succeeds in bringing Maria under Dracula's power, but Maria's boyfriend Paul (Barry Andrews), who lives and works in the bakery beneath the tavern, rescues her. Dracula kills Zena and orders the priest to destroy her corpse before she turns into a vampire, so the priest burns her body in the bakery ovens. The priest then helps Dracula locate Maria. Dracula climbs over the rooftops of nearby buildings, enters Maria's room, and bites her.

Mueller enters Maria's room just after Dracula has bitten the girl and pursues a fleeing figure across the rooftops. He is knocked down by the priest. Mueller makes his way back home, where his sister-in-law cares for him. He summons Paul, knowing that he will help protect Maria because of his love for her. Mueller passes on a book, which contains the rites of protection against vampires and ways to defeat them, before he succumbs to his wounds. Paul enlists the priest, not knowing he is under Dracula's spell. Unable to break free from Dracula's influence, the priest attacks Paul as they watch over Maria. Paul defeats the priest and forces him to lead the way to Dracula's lair. They try to stake Dracula through the heart, but the faithless priest and the atheist Paul are not able to say the required prayer, so Dracula rises and removes the stake himself. He kidnaps Maria and flees to the castle, pursued by Paul and the priest.

At the castle, Dracula orders Maria to remove the cross from the door. She throws it over the parapet into the ravine below, where it lands upright, wedged between the rocks. Paul fights Dracula on the parapet and throws him over the side, and he is impaled on the cross. The priest, freed from the vampire's influence, recites the Lord's Prayer in Latin before collapsing and Dracula perishes, dissolving into dust. Reunited with Maria and having apparently regained his Christian faith, Paul crosses himself while viewing Dracula's remains.

A doctor is decapitated by a masked man while a thief breaks into an underground lab. The masked man enters the lab, carrying the severed head, and fights the thief, who escapes in horror. The man unmasks himself and is revealed to be Baron Victor Frankenstein. The thief goes to the police station to report the severed head to Inspector Frisch. Frankenstein, under the alias Mr. Fenner, rents a room at a boarding house run by landlady Anna Spengler. Anna's fiancé Karl Holst is a doctor at the asylum where Frankenstein's former assistant Dr. Frederick Brandt was committed after going insane.

After discovering Karl has been stealing narcotics in order to support Anna's ailing mother, Frankenstein reveals his true identity and blackmails Karl into helping him kidnap Brandt so he can get the secret formula of his experiment. While stealing equipment from a warehouse for Frankenstein's new lab, Karl and the Baron are caught by the guard. Karl panics and stabs him. Frankenstein, now with a further hold on Karl uses him and Anna to kidnap Brandt. They take him back to the house where they build a lab in the basement. Karl confides to Anna about killing the guard and begs her to leave, fearing she may go to prison for being an accessory to a murderer, but she refuses.

Meanwhile, Brandt has a heart attack, prompting Frankenstein and Karl to kidnap the asylum's administrator Professor Richter to transplant Brandt's brain into his body. That night, while Anna is getting ready for bed, Frankenstein enters her room and rapes her. The next day, Frankenstein and Karl succeed in transplanting Brandt's brain into Richter's body and bury Brandt's body in the garden. Brandt's wife Ella recognises Frankenstein in the street and confronts him about her husband's kidnapping. Frankenstein assures her he has cured her husband's mental illness, but does not let her see him. She refuses to believe him and goes to Frisch.

While the creature recovers, Frankenstein and the lovers relocate to a deserted manor house when the police begin to close in. In the lab, the creature awakes and is horrified by his appearance. He scares Anna, who stabs him, causing him to escape. Frankenstein returns and finds the creature gone. In a rage, he fatally stabs Anna and goes after the creature. The creature makes it to his former home, but his wife refuses to accept him as her husband. Wanting revenge on Frankenstein and knowing the Baron will eventually track him there, he allows his wife to go free and pours liquid paraffin around the house.

Frankenstein soon arrives, with Karl following. Inside the house, the creature makes fires to trap him. Frankenstein finds the papers of discovery and flees, but is ambushed by Karl, and they fight. The creature emerges, knocks Karl out and carries a screaming Frankenstein into the burning house, where they both presumably die.

Antonia, a doctor specializing in the treatment of AIDS, and her husband Massimo are a couple of forty, socially established, who seem to live an intense and perfect bond, albeit quite routine, disturbed only by the difficult relationship that the woman lives with her mother. Antonia's quiet everyday life is irreparably upset when Massimo suddenly dies, run over by a car. Her violent detachment from her husband throws the woman into gloomy despair, into deep mourning that prevents her from reacting and makes relations with her mother, also a long-time widow, even more difficult. Among the personal objects that, in a break from depression, she collects from the office where Massimo worked, Antonia discovers a painting, entitled ''The ignorant fairy'', with dedication, which places her on the trail of a mysterious lover, of which of course, the young woman was unaware of existence.

The research that Antonia conducts, will lead her to discover a reality very far from any imagination : Massimo was bisexual and had a clandestine relationship with a man, Michele. The impact with Massimo's secret life is dramatic for Antonia: after the first moment of refusal, which Michele takes advantage of, to accuse Antonia of all the sacrifices he made in order to be with her beloved, the woman decides to meet again the boy to be told about Massimo's life. An ambiguous friendship is established between the two, through which Antonia comes into contact with the colorful community to which Michele belongs : gay friends, a transgender woman, a Turkish refugee, the Turkish singer Emir and a true Neapolitan woman; a kind of extended family that lives in the attic of a public building located in one of the most characteristic neighborhoods of Rome, Ostiense.

Antonia begins to interact with the group constantly with the excuse of assisting Ernesto, a young friend of Michele's, who's HIV positive. Through the contact and impact with the reality represented by the group, mitigated by sharing the memory of Massimo, Antonia undergoes a process of personal maturation and liberation from the bourgeois schemes that certainly represented her golden cage. However, the woman will soon find herself in certain moments sharing the image of her missing husband with Michele, to such an extent that she is tempted to transfigure in the young homosexual the sentiment denied her by the death of her relative : both discover through the other the numerous lies that Massimo he had told to lead the two parallel lives. The balance between the two is broken during a party, during which Antonia sees Michele flirting with two guys at the same time, with whom she will later have a ''ménage à trois'' ; for his part, the boy feels it as an insult that Antonia presents him with a book by Nazım Hikmet, their favorite poet, which Massimo had said (lying) to appreciate, in order to seduce Michele.

The feud between Antonia and Michele comes to an end when Ernesto runs away from home : it is Antonia who finds him, remembering a secret he said to her, and convinces him to take care of himself once and for all. Shortly after, Antonia and Michele exchange a passionate kiss, which sends both of them into crisis ; later the woman discovers that she is pregnant with Massimo's child, and runs to Michele's house to give him the good news, but she involuntarily listens to a confidence that he makes to his friends, during which he seems to want to distance himself definitively from her. Antonia, more and more confused, decides then, to distance herself from Michele : pretending to accept Emir's court and to follow him on ''tour'', instead she leaves alone : it will be this journey to restore the balance between the two.

''Knights and Merchants'' recreates the era of the Middle Ages. Apart from the purely fictitious geography of the world, all game elements and scenes are based on the European, but more particularly, the Anglo-Saxon period, around 1200 A.D.

''Voyager'' comes across a comet, inside which there is a single living being. It turns out to be a member of the Q Continuum (later designated as Quinn). Quinn thanks the Voyager crew for freeing him from his imprisonment, then tries to commit suicide. He is unsuccessful (see omnipotence paradox) and causes all the males on Voyager to vanish instead.

Q himself appears and accuses Quinn of sending humans to the Delta Quadrant where they did not belong yet, then realizes all the men are missing and returns them. Quinn requests Federation asylum from Janeway when Q wants to re-impose the Q Continuum's sentence of imprisonment. Q laughs at the request for asylum (the two Q even going as far as an extreme hide-and-seek chase) but Janeway decides to hold a hearing on Quinn's request. Q reluctantly agrees to make Quinn human if he is granted asylum. He attempts to bribe Janeway throughout the episode, claiming that if she rules against Quinn, he'll send ''Voyager'' home; it is also hinted that he is infatuated with her.

During the hearing, Q summons witnesses to testify against Quinn's suicide. Another Q defends the justice system of the continuum. Sir Isaac Newton claimed that he was sitting beside Quinn when the apple struck his head (after Quinn stood up to leave, he jostled the tree, causing the apple to fall). Another witness, Maury Ginsberg, claims that if Quinn had not offered a ride in his jeep, he would have never made it to Woodstock, got the sound system working, and met his future wife. Finally, William Riker of the USS ''Enterprise'' denies any claim to have known Quinn at all, until Q shows Riker that Quinn had helped his family in the past: as a soldier in the American Civil War, Quinn carried a wounded Union officer, Colonel Thaddeus Riker, back from the front lines to safety – ultimately ensuring Will Riker's existence in the future.

Quinn's argument involves a representation of the Q Continuum, which appears as a road stretching around the entire planet with one rest stop, a country gas station and store, and some bored Q standing around. Quinn describes immortality as dull, explaining that it is only possible to experience the universe so many times before it gets boring. Q tries to dismiss it and makes a poor attempt to show that the other members of the continuum are happy, but Quinn sees through it and confesses, to Q's surprise, that it was Q's earlier unrestrained behavior in an attempt to make his life fun (which led to the events in "Deja Q") that was the motivation for his own actions. He makes an impassioned speech comparing his eternal boredom to suffering from a terminal biological disease for which suicide is the only humane release, and that being forced to live for eternity against his will "cheapens and denigrates" his life, and indeed all life. Janeway is clearly moved by this and agrees to grant him asylum. Keeping his part of the bargain begrudgingly, Q makes him human. At this point, Quinn chooses his name.

While trying to decide where to assign Quinn so that he will not use his knowledge to evolve humanity overnight, Janeway and Chakotay receive a message from the Doctor that Quinn is dying after ingesting a rare poison, Nogatch hemlock. After they realize that the Doctor did not keep any of the poison on hand, and that the computer would not replicate it due to its harmful nature, Q then appears and admits that he was the one who gave Quinn the poison: he's taking up Quinn's rebellion against the staid order of the Q ("By demanding to end his life, he taught me a little something about my own. He was right when he said the Continuum scared me back in line. I didn't have his courage or his convictions. He called me irrepressible. This was a man who was truly irrepressible. I only hope I make a worthy student.").

The crew is sitting in the mess hall for a celebration in honor of Tuvok, who is promoted to lieutenant commander. After the party Tom Paris catches up with B'Elanna Torres. The two haven't talked since the incident with the warp core three days before, and Tom decides to make a move. B'Elanna confirms that she meant what she said when she confessed her love for him, and Tom accepts this with a kiss.

Shortly after the party ends ''Voyager'' receives a distress call, sent by Dejaren — a hologram alone aboard a ship. His six flesh-and-blood crewmates have been killed and he requests assistance. The Doctor is eager to meet a fellow hologram and he and B'Elanna take off in a shuttle to meet the disabled ship. When they beam on board, all is quiet. Dejaren stalks them for a few moments while they try to establish what is wrong with the ship. When he comes face-to-face with the away team, he is nervous, suspicious, and distraught. Dejaren introduces himself as an "isomorph." He says his crew suddenly died of a virus and he doesn't know what to do next. B'Elanna gets to work trying to stabilize his matrix so he can stay visible.

Meanwhile back on ''Voyager'' Harry Kim has been assigned to work with Seven of Nine. She correctly notes that he seems "apprehensive" at the prospect. Despite his wariness of her frightening Borg behavior, he seems to be developing a bit of a crush on her, and he finds working closely with her unsettling. They manage to get their work done, but they are interrupted when Seven cuts her hand on a piece of equipment. Tom Paris, who has recently been recruited as the Doctor's new assistant, mends the cut in sickbay. He notices that Harry is growing fond of her, and advises him to keep his distance.

B'Elanna has some trouble with Dejaren, who is emotionally labile and unpredictable. One minute he giggles at her need to sustain herself by consuming food ("you nibble like a fish!"), and the next he unleashes an angry tirade about the disgust he feels toward "organics." B'Elanna excuses herself and catches up with the Doctor, insisting that they leave the ship and the disturbing hologram behind. The Doctor brushes her off, suggesting she be more patient with Dejaren, who is simply lonely and lacking in appropriate communication skills. B'Elanna doesn't buy it, and heads off to locate the hologram's main control center.

As B'Elanna explores other decks of the ship, Dejaren accosts the Doctor and pours out his feelings. He has felt like a slave to the organics, who are weak and unsanitary and require ridiculous amounts of maintenance and hygiene just to stay functional. He has grown to hate them and is glad he has the ship to himself. He begs the Doctor to come with him and teach him how to use the ship and be free of organics forever. The Doctor starts to realize why B'Elanna is uncomfortable around this angst-ridden isomorph.

B'Elanna finds the matrix controls. She also finds the bodies of the crew, who were not killed by a virus. They were violently murdered — by Dejaren himself. Before she can shut down the homicidal hologram he appears behind her and grabs her. He thrusts his hand into her body and grips her heart.

Back on ''Voyager'' Harry is trying to get closer to Seven. He asks her out to the holodeck. She has textbook knowledge of human behavior and immediately understands that he is attempting to spark romantic interaction between them. Seven, who believes romance is irrelevant, suggests they proceed directly to copulation, and directs him to remove his clothes. Thoroughly unnerved, the embarrassed Harry retreats.

While B'Elanna's Klingon physiological backups are keeping her alive despite Dejaren having perforated one of the ventricles of her heart, she is still in need of ''Voyager'''s sickbay. She and the Doctor try to disable the crazed isomorph. He makes a grab for the Doctor's mobile emitter, but B'Elanna manages to jolt him with a high-voltage cable, which destabilizes his matrix for good. They hurry off the ship. Safely back in ''Voyager'' s sickbay, the Doctor patches up B'Elanna.

Seven of Nine uses the newly extended range of the starship USS Voyager (NCC-74656) s sensors to locate an unattended network of alien sensor stations. Patching into this, she is able to locate a United Federation of Planets vessel in the Alpha Quadrant. Hoping to contact Starfleet after more than three years in the Delta Quadrant, ''Voyager'' s crew attempts to send a message along the relay but it is reflected back after degrading en route. Thinking that a holographic signal would not degrade, they send the Doctor, ''Voyager'' s Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH).

The Doctor arrives in the sickbay of the ''USS Prometheus'', a secret experimental Federation warship. He learns from a dying crewman that the Romulans had learned of the prototype and captured it, killing all onboard. Being pursued by the ''USS Bonchune'', the Romulans initiate the first test of the new multi-vector assault mode, in which ''Prometheus'' splits into three pieces to engage hostile ships.

Seeking assistance, the Doctor activates the ''Prometheus'' s EMH (Andy Dick), a Mark II version of the program. The Doctor learns from the other EMH of the Dominion War, which the Federation is fighting in and Romulans have not entered. The second EMH cites protocol for an EMH to deactivate when its vessel is taken over but ''Voyager'' s doctor notes that they cannot do so as both ships are at risk.

The Romulans do not view EMHs as threats. Using the pretense of an infection on board, the Doctor goes to the bridge to open the atmospheric filters to flood the ship with anesthetizing gas. The ruse fails but when he is captured and interrogated, the Doctor keeps the Romulans stalled long enough for the EMH Mark II to fool the ship's computer into opening the filters, permitting the distribution of the gas. Just after they take control, ''Prometheus'' is intercepted by three Romulan ''D'deridex''-class warbirds.

Unfamiliar with the helm and weapons systems, the two EMH programs fail to fool the Romulans into leaving, before three more Starfleet vessels arrive. In the ensuing battle, all six other vessels target ''Prometheus''. The EMH Mark II stumbles upon the command to put the ship into multi-vector assault mode. ''Prometheus'' overpowers and destroys one of the Romulan warbirds; the Romulans retreat and a Starfleet security detail arrives aboard.

On ''Voyager'', the crew has learned that the sensor array was not abandoned but is claimed by the Hirogen, who announce themselves and demand that ''Voyager'' disconnect at once. Janeway tries to negotiate but the Hirogen officer is recalcitrant. Seven of Nine buys time to await the Doctor's return by stunning the officer with a feedback loop. The Doctor returns via the array with good news; he has briefed Starfleet Headquarters about ''Voyager'', the first time Starfleet has heard from the vessel since it disappeared three years earlier. ''Voyager'' has been removed from Starfleet's list of destroyed ships and a message sent back, "You're no longer alone". Starfleet will attempt to help ''Voyager'' and will tell next of kin that the crew is alive.

The episode opens with a scene on the "warship ''Voyager''", an alternate ''Voyager'' with a brutal, sadistic crew. The Vaskan ambassador requests their military aid against their enemies, the Kyrians, but the crew goes above and beyond what is necessary, committing genocide against them with biological weapons and executing the Kyrian revolutionary hero Tedran. The scene is then revealed to be a recreation by a Kyrian museum exhibit, seven hundred years later. In the actual course of events, Captain Janeway had agreed to provide the Vaskans with medical supplies in exchange for dilithium crystals. Tedran and the Kyrians boarded ''Voyager'' to stop the deal, which they thought was a military alliance. During their time on the ship, they stole a data module carrying a backup copy of the Doctor.

Quarren (Henry Woronicz), the curator at the museum, has found the Doctor's backup module three weeks prior. He is able to activate it using ''Voyager'' s own tools. The Doctor, upon seeing this biased simulation of history, is appalled and offers to show Quarren the correct version of events. Initially, the Doctor's claims that ''Voyager'' was unfairly depicted by the Kyrians are ignored, and he is told he could be held accountable for war crimes when he presents his story to the Commission of Arbiters. The Doctor states, however, that a presently non-functional Starfleet medical tricorder would settle the issue of who killed Tedran.

After fending off an angry mob of Vaskans intent on destroying what they now know to be a museum of false history, the Doctor initially wishes to abandon his quest to set the record straight and says that the truth may cause more harm and violence. Quarren objects, saying that the tension between the Kyrian and Vaskan cultures has already reached the breaking point. Quarren stresses that both races on his planet need to hear the truth about the real course of events on ''Voyager''. This persuades the Doctor to continue searching for the tricorder.

The episode ends an indeterminate number of years later, as the museum's new curator explains that the two species finally made peace thanks to the Doctor's efforts, with Quarren living long enough to see peace made. Following the peace, the Doctor served as the surgical chancellor for the Kyrians and Vaskans for many years, but eventually he took a ship and departed for Earth, saying that "he had a longing for home".

During a routine medical examination, the Doctor discovers evidence that Ensign Harry Kim has undergone complex brain surgery within the last two years which only the Doctor could have performed. Having no memory of the procedure, the Doctor attempts to reconstruct the missing time period and discovers that certain files in his memory were deleted. A reconstruction reveals photos of an Ensign Ahni Jetal, a woman of whom he has no recollection.

The Doctor eventually discovers that Captain Janeway and the crew conspired to eliminate files concerning a traumatic event that caused a holographic equivalent of a psychotic break. After an attack during an away mission, the Doctor could only treat one of two equally critically injured patients - Ensign Jetal and Ensign Harry Kim. The Doctor saved Harry; Jetal died on the operating table. As time passed, the Doctor was overpowered by guilt, believing his friendship with Harry affected his decision to save him rather than Jetal. A conflict then developed within his ethical programming that compromised his impartiality.

On having the previously deleted files reinstalled, the Doctor's mental stability once again deteriorates, and Janeway is faced with deleting his memories or allowing the Doctor time to resolve his guilt, a decision that could leave the crew without a medic in the interim. Seven of Nine argues to Janeway that, much as she herself did, the Doctor's personal development has advanced to where he deserves an opportunity to evolve beyond his program's original constraints. Janeway allows the Doctor to retain his memories so he can eventually reconcile with his past actions.

In the final scene, the Doctor reads from ''La Vita Nuova''. The words differ from the actual poem to make them more applicable to the story and give a more profound sense of closure: "In that book, which is my memory, on the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you appear the words, 'here begins a new life'".

''Redwall''

A young mouse named Matthias lives at Redwall Abbey. Reminiscing on his past life, he remembers how his family was very poor. During a particularly harsh winter, an army of Rats, led by Cluny the Scourge, attacked his village. Separated from his family, Matthias saw Cluny just before he was rescued by his sister and, with advice from voles, travelled to Redwall Abbey, with the memory of Cluny still fresh in their minds. After difficult travels, Matthias' sister collapsed, and Matthias followed soon after. When he came to, he found that he had been brought to Redwall Abbey, where the fathers of the abbey later informed him that his sister had died of exhaustion from the journey. Matthias was then raised in the abbey as a novice, yet dreamed of becoming a great warrior like Martin, the warrior-mouse that helped found Redwall. When he joined Constance the Badger in escorting some woodlanders from a feast at the Abbey, he was shocked when he spotted Cluny and his rats marching onto Redwall, taking a nearby church as their main base. Cluny and his captains went to Redwall, claiming to be travelers until they were inside, when Cluny makes his demands clear. In a fit of rage, Matthias attacked them, telling them exactly what he thought of them. Cluny and his captains were forced to leave when Constance threatened to kill them if they did not leave. When he was forced outside, Cluny instructed his only climber, the ninja-esque Shadow, to steal the image of Martin from the tapestry to reduce Redwall's morale. Shadow was successful, but was intercepted by Matthias, and fell to his death from the walls. Cluny then took the image of Martin as his war standard. However, Cluny had nightmares about Martin and Matthias for as long as the tapestry was in his possession. This was soon remedied when Matthias's friends, Jess Squirrel and Basil Stag Hare, stole the tapestry back.

After a number of battles, Matthias was busily looking for Martin's sword, theorizing that they could drive Cluny away if they found it. With old Methuselah the abbey recorder and Cornflower (a young mouse who Matthias was close friends with), they discover that Matthias was to be the next Abbey warrior, like Martin before him. Through a riddle they found under the tapestry, they discovered Martin's tomb underneath a set of stone stairs, and there they found Martin's shield and sword-belt. Next, Matthias found Martin's sheath in the roost of the Sparra, a tribe of savage sparrows living in the roofspaces, ruled by the insane King Bull Sparra. Matthias stole the sheath from the Sparra, killing Bull Sparra in the process, and befriended a young Sparrow named Warbeak. However, he learned that the sword was taken from the Sparra by Asmodeus Poisonteeth, a huge snake. On a journey to find information, Matthias met the Guosim Shrews, a tribe of argumentative shrews who told him to speak to a large snowy owl named Captain Snow for information. Snow told him that Asmodeus lives in a nearby quarry, but mocked Matthias for thinking he could stand a chance against the snake. In fact, he bet Matthias that if he got the sword, he would give up eating mice (and shrews), as well as apologise to Julian Gingivere, a vegetarian cat who used to be friends with Snow, until he banned Snow from his home because of his manners and taste in food. Matthias, after a brief return to the Abbey, set off on an expedition to find the sword, with help from the Guosim. They followed Asmodeus to the large quarry. There, Matthias found the sword, and in a fierce battle with the snake, decapitated him. Meanwhile, Cornflower discovered Martin's old battle-armour in an abbey attic.

Throughout this period, Cluny had been using various tactics to try to take over Redwall, including tunnelling in, using a battering ram, blackmailing a spice-merchant dormouse to kidnap Cornflower as ransom, burning the gates, using a siege tower, and sneaking his soldiers in with a visiting local circus. Every single time the rats failed, and Cluny began to show signs of insanity.

While Matthias was away gathering more troops to fight the rats, Cluny forced a dormouse he had captured to sneak into Redwall and open the gates from the inside. Cluny and his army entered the Abbey at last. However, Matthias came back, dressed in Martin's armour, alongside an army of shrews and sparrows that he had gathered. He found that Cluny had taken over, and was about to execute all the Redwallers (starting with Cornflower). The sight of Matthias dressed as the mouse he had seen in his dreams terrified Cluny, who sent his troops against Matthias and his army. During the ensuing battle between Cluny's army and the mixed defenders of Redwall (The Defenders of Redwall, the Guosim, and the Sparra), Cluny kidnapped Cornflower and hid in the belltower. When Matthias followed them in, Cluny ambushed him, and a duel began, which led them both up to the top of the belltower. Cluny jumped down and caught Cornflower again, threatening to kill her if Mathias did not come down to face him. Mathias swore to, if Cluny released her. Cluny released Cornflower, but Matthias cut the bellropes, causing the Abbey-bell to crash down onto Cluny, killing him instantly.

In the aftermath of the battle, Abbot Mortimer was fatally wounded. Before he died, he declared Matthias to be the Abbey warrior, and that Cornflower would be his wife.

In the epilogue, we see how life in Redwall is back to normal. The Sparra are now ruled by Warbeak who is a good ruler, and the Sparra are now friends with the Redwallers. Some of the Guosim Shrews have chosen to stay at Redwall, and have become beekeepers (even learning to speak to the bees, so they can argue with them). The new abbot is brother Mordalfus, previously known as brother Alf, who used to run the Abbey Pond. Matthias and Cornflower are now happily married and have a son, named Mattimeo (which is somehow short for Matthias Methuselah Mortimer (possibly MATThIas MEthuselah mOrtimer)). The new Abbey Recorder, John Churchmouse, signs off saying that the gates of Redwall are always open to travellers, inviting the viewer to visit if they are ever passing.

''Mattimeo''

Several seasons after the death of Cluny, Matthias and Cornflower had a son, Mattimeo. But one night, as the Redwallers were celebrating, they were interrupted by the masked fox, Slagar the Cruel, who was previously known as Chickenhound, who entered Redwall with a band of rodents, drugged everyone and kidnapped all of their children. Matthias, Basil Stag Hare and Jess headed out to save them, gaining new and old allies along the way, such as Orlando the Axe, the Guosim shrews, and the "Sparra".

Meanwhile, in their absence, things started to go wrong for Redwall. It came under attack by ravens, led by General Ironbeak. The ravens took all of their food and the dormitories, leaving Cavern Hole as the only free location. However, the Redwallers struck back by using Martin's armor as a ghost to scare the raven. They later saved a mountain bird named Stryk Redkite, who was being harassed and later hurt by the ravens. Eventually, Ironbeak figured out their little trick after seeing Constance the badger going to put away Martin's armour. He locked her in the gatehouse and had his troops take Cavern Hole. Constance was able to break out and save the Redwallers as a newly recovered Stryk killed Ironbeak. The other ravens left Redwall.

Matthias and company were able to follow Slagar's trail to an old buried abbey, Loamhedge, where a cult of rats who worshiped Malkariss, were enslaving others. The fight ended with the slaves stoning Malkariss to death and Matthias setting them free. Eventually, they won with the abbey sinking into the earth. At the surface, Slagar tried to get back at Matthias for the death of his mother but ended up falling into the hole from which he escaped.

Company returned to Redwall with the young ones and slaves. After seven seasons, things were going peacefully at Redwall. The slaves of Malkariss and Matthias' companions settled in Redwall. Matthias, Basil and Orlando began training Redwall's next generation of defenders.

''Martin the Warrior''

At the same seventh season after Matthias returned, the Redwallers listen to Tim Churchmouse, who tells the tale of how their hero, Martin, became the warrior he is known as today. In the lands of the Marshank coast, the terrible Badrang the Tyrant was increasing his piracy attacks, forcing Luke the Warrior, Martin's father, to go out to sea to combat the sea rats. He left his son his sword and told him to never let another creature take it. Years later, Martin was captured by Badrang and his sword taken. The young mouse served many years in the fortress of Marshank as a slave. When he defended an old squirrel named Barkjon, Badrang had him hung outside in the rain with hungry gulls to peck at him and was later put in the prison pit with Barkjon's son, Felldoh, and a mouse named Brome. Meanwhile, Badrang's old shipmate, Tramun Clogg, arrived to take Marshank. Brome's sister, Laterose, also known as Rose, and her friend, the mole Grumm, also arrived and began digging their way into the prison pit while Clogg began his siege. The five made it to Clogg's boats and managed to commandeer one. However, the boat had a hole, flooding it. A raging storm and a fish separated the group. Martin, Rose and Grumm ended up captured by pygmy shrews and met a hedgehog by the name of Pallum. After saving Queen Amballa's son, Dinjer, they were free to go to Noonvale, Rose's home.

Meanwhile, Brome and Felldoh washed up somewhere else, meeting the Rosehip Players, a traveling circus who agreed to help them free the slaves of Marshank. Managing to win Clogg's amusement, they got inside Marshank and freed most of the slaves. A few days later, Brome disguised himself as one of the rats to get inside, and freed the other slaves through the prison pit's tunnel.

En route to Noonvale, the company made many friends, such as the Warden of Marshwood Hill and Boldred the owl and enemies like the uncivilized cannibalistic lizards and the rogue Gawtrybe. With help from the shrews and otters, they made it to Noonvale but were unable to raise an army to defeat Badrang. However, many were drawn to Martin's cause, including the Gawtrybe as he made his way to Marshank.

Clogg took his opportunity to capture Marshank while Badrang was out. However, Badrang knew of the tunnel in the prison pit. He had Clogg's soldiers swear allegiance to him while Clogg became Marshank's one man slave operation. Felldoh became so obsessed with Marshank's fall that he began solo attacks against it. When he faced Badrang head-to-head, he was beaten to death by his minions. It wasn't until Martin arrived with his army that he forced Badrang into a corner. Martin's army burned down Marshank's gate, and began their attack. In the confusion, Martin retrieved his father's sword and slew Badrang with it. Unfortunately, Badrang had stabbed and killed Rose during the battle. The Fur and Freedom Fighters returned to Noonvale, where it will remain a secret, while Martin continued on his own path.

Seven of Nine decides to increase the amount of information she receives from the ship's database by directly assimilating as much of ''Voyager'' s data as possible. This allows her to draw conclusions from varied sources of data and find bugs in one of the systems. Meanwhile, the ship encounters an alien who has constructed a catapult capable of throwing a ship several hundred light years in a few hours. The crew of Voyager help him repair his array, with hopes that if he makes the trip successfully they can then use it to shorten their trip home.

Seven of Nine downloads the data about the catapult, but she begins to exhibit paranoid behavior. She uses evidence concerning possible spatial-warp technology developments to convince Chakotay that Janeway might be spearheading a Federation presence in the Delta Quadrant. Although skeptical, Chakotay delays the shield modifications necessary for the catapult trip so he can examine the evidence himself.

After another regeneration/assimilation cycle, Seven has a new conclusion. She uses most of the same evidence, but this time with added incidents involving Chakotay to support her findings to convince Janeway that Chakotay might be spearheading a power grab for the Maquis with the same technology. (Seven states that Seska impregnated herself with Chakotay's DNA but in Season 3, Episode 1, the Doctor reveals that Chatokay is not the father.)

The two end up comparing stories and they realize Seven is acting irrationally. The Doctor determines that Seven has downloaded more information than she can handle.

Seven then starts suspecting a third conspiracy: that the aim of the last five years was actually to grab a Borg drone, herself. Seven steals the ''Delta Flyer'' in order to escape from ''Voyager''. Janeway manages to beam aboard. She convinces Seven that she is ill and she returns to ''Voyager'' for treatment.

The crew successfully uses the alien's catapult to travel closer to the Alpha Quadrant, cutting three years off their journey.

''Voyager'' encounters a technologically advanced race called the Qomar, and renders aid after a Qomar crew suffers minor injuries from a reaction with ''Voyager's'' scanners. The Qomar are extremely arrogant and dismissive to everyone, and dislike the Doctor simply for being a holographic entity. However, once the Qomar happen to hear the Doctor singing, they are immediately enthralled by him, since they never conceived the concept of music.

When the Doctor explains how music is used and how many others on the ship can perform it naturally, the Qomar invite the ''Voyager'' crew to their home system—previously off limits to outsiders—to learn more about music. The ''Voyager'' crew discover thousands of subspace channels encrypted in many ways, and tons of traffic just above the home world. The Qomar decide to transmit the Doctor's singing planet-wide, and make him a star. This accentuates his vanity, making him unpopular with his friends on ''Voyager''. He asks to leave so he can pursue his music career on the planet. This causes more anger, as the crew believes they need his medical skills and have grown to love him as a member of the crew.

The Doctor protests, even preparing Paris to take over his position, and severely upsetting Seven of Nine, who feels like she is being abandoned. However, the aliens replace him with an upgraded singing hologram capable of a greater vocal range. The Doctor's hopes for a new life are dashed. In the end, the Doctor realizes they simply wanted him for his singing, not who he is as a sentient entity. The ''Voyager'' crew welcome him back, as symbolized by Seven delivering him a fan letter praising his talent and personality, signed by Seven of Nine.

''Voyager'' receives a message from Starfleet Command via the improved subspace radio amplifier, stating they believe they have found a way to bring ''Voyager'' back to the Alpha Quadrant within five to six years instead of the decades they had before them. Elated, the crew send back data regarding their journey to date. In Starfleet's reply, they learn that Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of the Doctor's Emergency Medical Hologram program, is dying and no Starfleet medical personnel can determine the reason. The Doctor expresses that because of his experiences in the Delta Quadrant, he may have more insight to Zimmerman's condition, and asks to have his program transferred via subspace to help.

After eliminating several of his extraneous subroutines to reduce the program size, the Doctor is sent to a space station orbiting near Jupiter. The station has been Zimmerman's home for the last four years, where he spent much time researching hologram technology, and the entire facility is enabled to allow the Doctor and Zimmerman's holographic female servant, Haley, free rein. The Doctor meets with Reginald Barclay who has been assigned to help Zimmerman before meeting his creator in person. Zimmerman quickly proves to be old and cantankerous, looking down on the Doctor as one of his earlier, outdated Mark I programs that are now all reassigned to perform menial jobs. The Doctor attempts to prove his value to allow examination, but Zimmerman ignores him, and even one point manipulating the Doctor's program to make him his pet for a few hours. The Doctor grows frustrated in trying to help, and the two stop speaking to each other.

With Zimmerman's health declining, Barclay is able to gain the help of Deanna Troi to help come counsel the situation between the two. After meeting with both, she realizes that both Zimmerman and the Doctor seem to be beyond the point of reason. While discussing the situation, they realize that Haley is a far less advanced hologram program than the Doctor is, yet Zimmerman speaks openly and kindly with her. Troi suspects that Zimmerman's behavior is one of injured pride, and devises a plan where they secretly fiddle with the Doctor's files as to make it appear that his program is failing. Troi and Barclay insist that only Zimmerman can save the Doctor, just as the Doctor can only save him.

Zimmerman finally is able get past his wounded pride of the fate of his Mark Is, and fixes the Doctor's program. Zimmerman attempts to add additional programming to the Doctor, but he insists that he is good the way he is. The Doctor then examines Zimmerman, and opts to try an experimental cellular regeneration therapy he had developed while on ''Voyager''. The process is successful, and Zimmerman is soon back in good health. Zimmerman apologizes for his behavior and tells the Doctor that he is proud of him as the only Mark I that has gone well beyond his original programming. After saying his goodbyes, the Doctor is returned to ''Voyager'' and Zimmerman continues his hologram research.

Siblings Patti (Joan Jett) and Joe Rasnick (Michael J. Fox) perform in a rock band, The Barbusters, based in Cleveland, Ohio. As a single mother, Patti is estranged from her religious parents and struggles to provide for her son, Benji (Billy L. Sullivan), while Joe works at a manufacturing plant to help support his sister and nephew.

Prior to a band performance, Patti breaks in to a home and steals a set of tools to pay for a Peavey mixing board, arriving just in time to start the set. At work the next day, Joe is confronted by his coworker Smittie (Thomas G. Waites), whose brother-in-law was the target of the burglary, demanding payment. Joe agrees to pay the $600 on his sister's behalf, asking his mother, Jeanette (Gena Rowlands), for a loan. She reluctantly agrees, concerned about Joe covering for Patti's numerous past mistakes.

On repaying Smittie, Joe finds that he has been laid off. He and Patti agree that their best option is to take The Barbusters on a tour. They depart, taking Benji with them. The tour appears to be successful, but struggling with finances, each earns only $57 per member after a week of touring.In spite of this, Patti wishes to thank the band with steaks she claims to have been saving up for, but which Joe saw her shoplifting earlier. Joe confronts her about the theft, and Patti storms off to get ready for a show.

While she's gone, Joe returns to their parents' home with Benji. Patti arrives and is heavily criticized by Jeanette for neglecting Benji while on tour and pointing out her many failures. Joe intervenes, taking Patti to the basement to cool down. With a sense of desperation, Patti details her desire to tighten up the band and take it to a new level, which Joe is skeptical can happen.

Returning from a Fabulous Thunderbirds concert, Joe finds Patti excited to audition for The Hunzz, a local metal band. Joe has no interest in joining The Hunzz, and Patti sees Joe's concern for the stability of their family as opposition to Patti's life. A brief fight ensues, but Benji appears, crying. Joe takes Benji to his room, and Patti leaves to audition for The Hunzz.

The band members go their separate ways, with Joe returning to his manufacturing job and caring for Benji as a surrogate father. Issues with Jeanette's memory become apparent when she forgets that they own a functional washing machine. Joe's father, Benjamin (Jason Miller), confirms that her memory is fading, but he doesn't bring it up for fear of upsetting her.

While talking to Bu (Michael McKean) at work soon after, Joe gets a call that his mother is in the hospital. At the hospital, Jeanette has been undergoing tests and appears confused. The results of a biopsy are made known to Joe and his father, indicating that Jeanette is suffering from ovarian cancer. Jeanette wonders where Patti is, and Joe believes he can find her.

Joe goes to a Hunzz show to find Patti and takes her home. After a night out at a bar, Patti, Joe, and the band reconcile. Later, at the hospital, Jeanette requests to speak with Patti alone, and they reconcile while Jeanette is on her deathbed. Patti confesses that Reverend Ansley is Benji's father. Jeanette expresses a wish for Benjamin to remarry, and for Patti to join her in Heaven, with Patti agreeing to both.

Soon after, Jeanette passes away. At the viewing for her funeral, Patti is absent. Later that night, The Barbusters are expected to play a reunion show, but Bu suspects Patti will not make it to that, either. Joe finds her at an arcade, confronting her about her absences, while declaring how much he used to look up to her.

Patti leaves the arcade to go to the funeral home, and embraces her father. Meanwhile, The Barbusters are setting up, getting ready to start their set without Patti. Surprising everyone, Patti arrives in time for the first chorus of "Light of Day," and the band is reunited.

In the 12th century, a collection of nations called the Covenant of Seven send their best warriors to kill Asmodeus, a practitioner of the dark arts who wields the fabled Mace of Tanis. The Mace is imbued with necropotic energy, offering those who wield it a tantalizing promise of ever-lasting life and unbridled power. Leaders from the East sense that Asmodeus is plotting and send their own warriors to eliminate him before it is too late.

In the near future, Harley Davidson travels from Texas to Burbank, California to reconnect with his old friend Robert Lee "Marlboro Man" Edison at their old haunt; Rock N' Roll Bar & Grille. Their mutual friend Jack Daniels holds animosity towards Harley over an affair he and his now-wife Lulu had years prior. The bar has fallen on hard times, and the Great Trust bank has threatened foreclosure, planning to demolish the building to make way for a skyscraper. Harley and Robert convince Jack to help them rob one of the Bank's armoured cars in order to collect the funds necessary to renew the building's lease. The robbery mostly goes off without a hitch, but the trio are intercepted by a group of security agents who almost foil their getaway. Upon escaping, they discover the loot they stole from the van contains not money, but a new, experimental street drug called "Crystal Dream."

The bank's head of security Alexander is ordered by CEO Chance Wilder to recover the stolen drugs and kill the thieves. Meanwhile, Robert is pulled over for speeding by a motorcycle cop, his ex-lover Virginia Slim. The two spend the night together, during which Robert learns that she's engaged. Harley takes Virginia to breakfast the next morning, during which she tells him that Crystal Dream is 100% addictive and causes lasting neurological damage and, eventually, death. Robert, fuming about Virginia's upcoming marriage, steals her fiancé's motorcycle. He and Harley go to the bank's headquarters and talk to Wilder via telephone. They demand $2.5 million in exchange for the drugs. Wilder agrees to have someone meet them that night in the airplane graveyard for the exchange. Alexander shows up with the money and the transfer goes off without any problems. That night, while they hang out in the bar's back room celebrating, Marlboro is suspicious of the ease of the exchange. Suddenly, Alexander and his men show up. Watching through a one-way mirror, the owner tries to convince them that the gang isn't there. Alexander appears to walk away as if to leave and suddenly turns around and shoots him. They open fire on the room behind the mirror; Harley and Marlboro are the only ones who escape alive as the others are cut down in brutal fashion.

The two retreat to the nearby airport and hide in the baggage compartment of a plane. One of the agents nearly finds them but they escape to Las Vegas, where they check into a hotel, only to be tracked down by Alexander. The two escape to the hotel's roof and jump off into the swimming pool. Harley finds out that they've been tracked with a device hidden in the dollar coin given to them by Alexander. The two hop a freight train headed east after deactivating the tracker, but Marlboro leaves after telling Harley that they owe it to the dead friends that helped them to go back to LA and settle things. Harley refuses to go and Marlboro jumps off the train. Harley has a change of heart, and catches up with Marlboro and they form a plan to meet with Alexander, reactivating the tracker in the coin. Alexander traces them to the airplane graveyard, finding the briefcase that contained the money but only finding the dollar coin inside. However, he sights Harley and Marlboro nearby and a gunfight ensues. Marlboro is able to kill both of Alexander's two remaining men, however, Alexander catches Marlboro and holds him hostage. Harley tries to shoot Alexander and misses, hitting Marlboro. Harley finally summons up the aim to hit Alexander and the two finally manage to kill him.

The duo bribe Alexander's helicopter pilot into taking them to Wilder's office. They give Wilder his money back and demand he change the lease on the bar. Wilder is unwilling to do so and orders his men to kill them when the pilot, paid off by Harley and Marlboro, appears hovering in his chopper outside. He opens fire on the office with the chopper's cannon, killing Wilder's thugs. Wilder insults Marlboro's dead father; Marlboro begins to beat him up until Wilder dangles out the window of his office, holding onto Marlboro's disintegrating cowboy boot. Harley helps him out, the boot comes apart and Wilder falls to his death.

Marlboro and Harley part ways at a rodeo, where Marlboro is riding a bull. As Harley rides away, he picks up a beautiful female hitchhiker.

John Plummer is engaged to Elaine Warner and intends to use his life savings of $30,000 to put a down payment on a house. He works for Elaine's father, Mr. Warner, who dislikes John. Simultaneously, John's niece Noreen, daughter of sister Patty, is accepted to Harvard University, but needs an additional $30,000 on top of her grants and scholarships. Noreen shows John an old videotape where he promised to pay for Noreen's college. John now has a moral and financial dilemma – disappoint his fiancée or disappoint his niece and ruin her chance at escaping poverty.

John confides in his friend Walter "Duff" Duffy, a landscaper. He convinces John to steal from one of his rich clients, who keeps large amounts of cash in an unlocked safe. The pair set off to steal the cash, but Duff runs away when lights come on in the home, leaving John to get caught by Emmett Cook. At gunpoint, Cook forces John to cross-dress and role-play the part of Cook's late wife as the two men lie in bed and "spoon". Eventually, after taking an incriminating photograph of John, Cook releases him. As he is leaving, Mr. Warner rides by and takes note of John's panicked behavior, believing that he has caught John in an affair.

Further capers ensue as John and Duff try to rob a liquor store and later attempt to con a drug lord out of $30,000 by concocting a phony story about running an ecstasy ring. A police detective is on to John and Duff, but never has enough evidence to actually pin any of the crimes on them. Meanwhile, Mr. Warner breaks into Cook's residence in order to get evidence against John, and once Cook catches him, he is forced to "spoon" as well. Despite this, Warner finds a common ground with Cook as he is also widower though he doesn’t agree with Cook’s method of coping. Before leaving, Warner finds the photo of John from the album, which he then gives to Elaine.

John is forced to confess everything to Elaine, who is not upset and admires the lengths he was willing to go to in order to please her and send his niece to Harvard. Elaine then confides in John that her father keeps a great deal of money at his business, and that it would be easy for them to steal it. John, Elaine, and Duff set out to rob the business in the night. Unfortunately, Mr. Warner had hid his dog Rex inside the vault. Rex latches on to Duff’s crotch, and oddly, enjoys it so much that he doesn’t let go. Just as John and Elaine find the money, Mr. Warner tries to attack them but he is caught by the detective who mistakes him for a burglar. While Duff is relentlessly pursued by Rex, John and Elaine escape to Duff's van. The police arrive and the gang unsuccessfully tries to get away. They are all taken into custody by the detective and facing a series of charges. John feels doomed, until the judge in charge of his arraignment turns out to be the gun-toting Emmett Cook.

Upon their mutual recognition, John flashes a written message to Cook, threatening to expose the judge's fetish; upon reading the note, Cook quickly dismisses all charges against John. Finally, Duff comes through as best he can and gives John his life savings, $1,000, which John bets on a long-shot horse which wins and which paid 30 to 1. John and Elaine are married, Noreen goes off to college, and, in the final scene, John is left to ponder how Duff could possibly accumulate $1,000. The last scene shows Duff offering to "spoon" with Cook for $1,000.

Following a camping trip in the nearby Cascade mountains, George Henderson drives home to suburban Seattle with his family when he hits a Bigfoot with his station wagon. Believing it to be dead and the key to fame and fortune, the family straps the creature to the roof of their car. A lone hunter tracking the creature discovers the Hendersons' damaged license plate.

That night, George goes to the garage to examine the Bigfoot and discovers it was alive and has escaped. He finds the creature in the kitchen, having knocked over the refrigerator while looking for food. The family soon realizes that the creature is intelligent and friendly. The family bonds with the creature and George decides to return him to the wilderness. Naming the Bigfoot "Harry", George tries to lure him into the station wagon with food, but Harry becomes upset and runs off.

Saddened, the family attempt to resume their normal lives, but sightings of Harry become more frequent as media fervor heightens. George tries to find Harry and visits the "North American Museum of Anthropology" to speak with Dr. Wallace Wrightwood, a supposed expert on Bigfoot. Giving his phone number to the museum clerk, George resumes his search. The legendary hunter turned Bigfoot tracker, Jacques LaFleur, finds the Henderson household. At work, George's father asks him to make a poster of a vicious Bigfoot to drum up gun sales, but George throws the sketch away, replacing it with a proper depiction of the peaceful Harry. His father in turn alters it to make him look threatening, resulting in George quitting his job. George soon follows a Bigfoot sighting into the city while the terrified and confused Harry continues to evade hunters and the police as he attempts to find safety. George saves Harry from LaFleur, who is arrested. George brings Harry home and he is reunited with the Henderson family.

George invites Dr. Wrightwood to dinner, revealed to have been the museum clerk. He urges the Hendersons to give up on Bigfoot as it has destroyed his life. He then meets Harry, restoring his enthusiasm. Bailed out of jail, LaFleur travels to the Henderson house to kill Harry. Harry and the Hendersons escape with Dr. Wrightwood in his truck, and LaFleur gives chase. Fleeing back to the mountains, George tries to force Harry to leave. Confused and upset, Harry departs but the family realizes that LaFleur can track Harry's footprints in the snow. Despite their efforts to misdirect him, LaFleur tracks Harry and attempts to shoot him with a rifle. Harry subdues LaFleur and George intervenes when LaFleur attempts to escape, but Harry stops George from assaulting LaFleur. Through Harry's kindness, LaFleur gives up the hunt when he realizes that Harry is more than a simple beast.

As the family says goodbye, George thanks Harry and the two embrace. George tells him to take care of himself, to which Harry replies, "Okay" – revealing he has the ability to learn language. As Harry leaves, three other hiding Bigfoots and one adolescent suddenly emerge and then quickly disappear into the wilderness with Harry as the Henderson family watches in amazement.

Aging criminal mastermind John Egan decides to rob St. Louis' Southwest Bank, then use the loot to retire to Mexico with his longtime minion Willy. Their accomplice, Gino, is an ex-convict terrified of returning to prison, and wants money to pay for his defense in an upcoming criminal trial. The gang needs a driver for the getaway car. Gino recruits his sister Ann's old boyfriend, George Fowler, a former collegiate football star with no criminal history. Egan takes a liking to George, much to Willy's displeasure.

The gang meticulously gathers information on the bank to help Egan draw up his plans. In order to pay for a hotel room, Gino convinces George to borrow money from Ann. The transaction is the first meeting between the young couple since an unspecified action by George got them both expelled from college. George and Gino keep the incident hidden from Egan, who refuses to have women even tangentially involved in his work; he drunkenly confesses to George that his misogyny comes from experiences with his abusive mother, whom he eventually murdered by pushing her down a flight of stairs.

Ann sees George and Gino watching the bank, and deduces that they are planning a robbery. She confronts George, who claims that he will use the money to return to school and straighten out his life. Ann still feels too much affection for George to notify the police, but she goes to the Southwest Bank at night and writes a warning about the impending robbery on its window. Willy saw George and Ann together, enabling Egan to trace the source of the message. The gang invades Ann's apartment, with Egan demanding that she leave town until the heist has been completed. Both Gino and George fail to stand up for Ann, letting Egan and Willy carry her away. As the three leave the apartment building, Egan has a flashback to his mother's murder and throws Ann to her death off the fire escape.

Feeling personally betrayed by George, Egan orders him to participate directly in the robbery while Willy drives the car. They neglected to bring a police-frequency scanner and are unaware that the bank had relocated a switchboard from the lobby, elements that foil key aspects of their plan. An employee triggers the silent alarm, and police swarm the bank exterior. Willy flees in the car, leaving the other robbers stranded. As the gang try to work out their next move, Egan inadvertently reveals that he killed Ann. He forces his way out of the bank, using a teller as a human shield, but is shot down by the police. Gino commits suicide in the basement vault.

George takes a young woman hostage. Her husband tries to intervene, and the woman warns him that George is a vicious criminal who will show them no mercy. Already shaken by Ann's death, George breaks down and begins protesting that he is not really a criminal. He releases the woman and lets himself be captured by the police. Driven away in a paddy wagon, he sees the world receding behind metal bars.

Brothers Prem and Rajesh lost their parents at an early age. They live with their uncle Kailash Nath. Rajesh manages the family business and his family is on the look-out for a suitable bride for him. One day, Kailash meets his college friend, Siddharth Chaudhary, who is now a professor, after several years. Siddharth and his wife Madhukala have two daughters named Pooja and Nisha. Siddharth and Kailash arrange marriage between Rajesh and Pooja. From their first meeting, Nisha and Prem start bickering lightheartedly with each other, and the fun and mischief continue throughout Pooja and Rajesh's wedding.

Prem has an amicable relationship with Rajesh's warm-hearted sister-in-law Nisha. In time, Pooja and Rajesh realise their love for each other, and it is revealed that Pooja is expecting a child. Siddharth and Madhukala are unable to come to Kailash's house for the ceremony marking the impending arrival of the baby. They send Nisha instead, who is present at the birth. Meanwhile, Nisha and Prem fall in love with each other, but keep it a secret. Siddharth and Madhukala come over to Kailash's house to celebrate the birth of their grandchild. When the time comes to part, their hosts are dejected, especially Prem. He and Nisha promise each other that they will soon reunite forever.

Pooja is invited to stay at her parents' house, and Prem takes her there. When they arrive, Pooja learns that Prem and Nisha are in love, and gives Nisha a necklace as a token, promising to get them married. Shortly afterward, Pooja accidentally slips, falling down from the stairs, and eventually dies from a head injury. Everybody is shattered by the tragedy.

Nisha takes good care of Pooja and Rajesh's son. Hence, Siddharth and Kailash feel that Nisha will be a great mother to the baby. They decide to have Nisha marry Rajesh. Nisha overhears Siddharth and Madhukala talking about her marriage into Kailash's family and thinks that they are discussing her marriage to Prem, to which she agrees. Later, at a pre-nuptial ceremony, she finds out that she is actually going to marry Rajesh.

Prem and Nisha vow to sacrifice their love for Rajesh and the son. Moments before the wedding, Nisha asks Prem's dog Tuffy to give Prem the necklace that Pooja had given her, along with a letter. Tuffy exits Nisha's room and instead of taking the letter to Prem, delivers it to Rajesh. Rajesh reads the letter and realises that Prem and Nisha love each other. Subsequently, he halts the wedding and confronts both Nisha and Prem. In the end, Nisha and Prem marry each other with the consent of their families.

When Tom Long's brother Peter gets measles, Tom is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen. They live in an upstairs flat of a big house with no garden, only a tiny yard for parking. The former grounds of the big house have been sold for building and are occupied by modern houses. The elderly and reclusive landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, lives above them. Because Tom may be infectious, he is not allowed out to play, and he feels lonely. Without exercise he lies awake after midnight, restless, when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13. He gets up to investigate and discovers that the back door now opens on a large sunlit garden.

Every night the clock strikes 13 and Tom returns to the Victorian era grounds. There he meets another lonely child, a girl called Hatty, and they become inseparable playmates. Tom sees the family occasionally, but only Hatty (and as is revealed later in the book, the gardener) sees him and the others believe she plays alone.

Tom writes daily accounts to his brother Peter, who follows the adventures during his recovery – and afterward, for Tom contrives to extend the stay with Aunt and Uncle. Gradually at first, Hatty grows up and passes Tom's age; he comes to realise that he is slipping to different points in the past. Finally she grows up at a faster rate, until she is an adult and is being courted by an acquaintance of hers who is nicknamed "Barty." At this stage in the book, the season in the old garden tends to be winter. Tom ingeniously obtains ice skates by having Hatty conceal her old pair in his room, where he subsequently finds them and joins her skating on the next night.

On the final night before Tom is due to go home, he goes downstairs to find the garden is not there. He frantically tries to find it, but crashes into a set of bins from the present–day courtyard, waking up several residents. He shouts Hatty's name in desperation, before his Uncle Alan finds him and puts the events down to Tom sleepwalking. The following morning, Mrs Bartholomew summons Tom to apologise, only to reveal herself as Hatty, having made the link when she heard him call her name. The events Tom experienced were real in Hatty's past; he has stepped into them by going into the garden at the times she dreamt of them. On the final night, she had instead been dreaming of her wedding with Barty.

After taking Tom home, Aunt Gwen comments on the strange way that Tom had said goodbye to Mrs Bartholomew when he left: he hugged her as if she were a little girl.

“...Our story opens following the death of Hop Li, member of the powerful Lem Sing Tong, and we see his funeral procession passing down DuPont Street”...

A huge dragon banner unfolds, declaring war. People panic: men sharpen hatchets; shops are shuttered. Wong Low Get is summoned from Sacramento to take revenge for Hop's death. He is stunned when the council president, Nog Hong Fah, tells him that Sun Yat Ming, his friend since childhood, is the guilty party. Sun is surprised and pleased to see Wong. He has prepared for his own assassination: His will leaves everything to his old friend. He also asks Wong to raise his little daughter, Toya San, and marry her when she comes of age. Wong agrees—and then reveals that he is the Lem Sing Tong hatchet man. Wong swears before the Buddha that Toya will never know “the song of sorrow.” Sun calmly kneels and prays and forgives Wong's “innocent hand its stroke of justice.”

Chinatown “today”.. “a far cry from what we have just seen. Gone are the warring Tongs—Gone are the queues and chop-sticks.” Wong, a prominent businessman, is wealthy and happy. Nog detests change, especially the way that women are being spoiled “by intelligence and freedom”. It is Toya's birthday; it should be the day of her betrothal. Nog is appalled to learn that Wong will defy tradition and give her a choice.

Wong offers Toya his mother's ring and declares his love. He is overjoyed when she replies “My father's wish is also mine.” He kneels before the statue of Buddha, affirming his promise to bring her only happiness.

On the day of the wedding, the Bing Foo, an outlaw Tong based in Sacramento, declares war. Wong fears a nationwide conflict and the transformation of Tongs into gangsters. Nog hires bodyguards, and the handsome young gangster, Harry En Hai (Leslie Fenton) is assigned to Wong. Toya is a modern girl with a good education, and at first she gives Harry the brush off.

Wong and Toya are happy together, but threats and blackmail from Sacramento continue. Wong's devoted clerk, Chung Ho, is killed, and Wong goes to Sacramento to meet with the Bing Foo. Only Big Jim Malone, the white gangster who started the war, refuses to cooperate. Wong eliminates him, and the war ends.

Meanwhile, Harry has seduced Toya. When Wong returns, he finds them embracing passionately. She steps between Harry and Wong, and recalls his promise to make her happy, always. Wong gives Toya and her happiness to Harry, making him swear, warning that if he breaks faith Buddha will find him. Because of this “unworthy act”, Wong is stricken from the Tong's records everywhere. Shunned, he falls into poverty.

At last, Wong hears from Toya in a note, “written from a living death” in China, to tell him she loves only him. The government caught Harry selling opium, and deported both of them. Wong redeems his hatchets from pawn and heads across the Pacific to China, working as a stoker.

Toya is prisoner in an opium den/brothel, sold to Madame Si-Si by Harry. Harry sees Wong, but thinks he is a drug-induced hallucination. Toya faints when she sees him, but Wong has only love for her. He confronts Madame Si-Si and demands his wife, by ancient Chinese law and on the honor of a hatchet man. Madame SiSi scoffs; he proves it by hitting the eye of a dragon in a wall painting. Toya and Wong leave. He promises to return for Harry. On the other side of the partition, Madame Si Si shrieks at an unresponsive Harry while her servant removes the hatchet from the partition—and from Harry's skull. Harry's body falls, Cut to the statue of Buddha; Wong repeats his warning to Harry. “The great Lord Buddha will find you no matter where you are on the face of the Earth”.

The ''Enterprise'' is contacted by a humanoid race called the J'naii. They are a race who have no gender. They ask the crew for help in finding a shuttle which has gone missing. It is theorized that the shuttle disappeared into a pocket of null space. This is a pocket of space which drains energy rapidly. In short order, a rescue mission is planned, for which Riker volunteers to pilot a shuttle to retrieve the shuttle crew. A member of the J'naii named Soren insists on accompanying Riker, acting as a co-pilot. Soren proves to be a good pilot. Riker and Soren share a meal and become more comfortable with each other. They are interrupted by another J'naii, and Soren leaves quickly.

While the pair is charting the null space, the shuttle is damaged, and Soren is injured. While being treated by Dr. Crusher, Soren asks her several questions about female gender identification. While Soren and Riker work on the shuttle, Soren confesses that she is attracted to Riker and states that she has a female gender identity. Soren explains that the J'naii are an androgynous species that view the expression of any sort of male or female gender, and especially sexual liaisons, as a sexual perversion. According to their official doctrine, the J'naii had evolved beyond gender and thus view the idea of male/female sexuality as primitive. Those among the J'naii who view themselves as possessing gender are ridiculed, outcast, and forced to undergo "psychotectic therapy" - a form of conversion therapy meant to remediate gender-specificity and allow acceptance back into J'naii society.

The relationship between Riker and Soren grows and is eventually discovered. Soren is put on trial, but before she answers to the charges, Riker bursts in and attempts to take the blame for the situation. Soren foils his attempt and proceeds to passionately defend herself and express her outrage at what their society does to those who express male or female identities. J'naii diplomats force Soren to undergo psychotectic therapy, citing reformed citizens' newfound happiness and desire to be normal. Riker's emotions and love for Soren grow and he decides that he cannot leave Soren to this fate. He tries to explain the situation to Picard, who is sympathetic to Riker but says that he cannot sanction a rescue mission as it violates the Prime Directive, not to mention Riker throwing away his career. Worf visits Riker in his quarters and offers to go with him on an "unannounced visit" to rescue Soren, since he is unwilling to let Riker face the task alone. When Riker and Worf beam down to the planet to rescue Soren, he realizes that the therapy has already been performed. Soren refuses to go with him, claiming that she is now happy and was sick during her affair with Riker. Soren apologizes to Riker, who returns dejectedly to the ''Enterprise'' with Worf.

The novel's plot concerns two sisters, Virginia and Angela Murray, who grow up in Philadelphia in a home rich with African-American culture. Angela, like her mother Mattie, is light skinned and able to “pass” in white society, while Virginia and her father Junius's darker complexion places them on the other side of the color line. Virginia grows up refusing to bow to racist pressures; rather she accepts who she is. Angela, on the other hand, tries repeatedly to gain acceptance by assuming a white mask, but each time it seems that success and friendship are hers, her ethnicity is exposed and she is stripped of everything she cares about.

The deaths of her parents and the racism of Philadelphia society cause Angela to leave for New York City, where she decides to fully hide her African-American heritage. She gains acceptance in an elite artistic circle perhaps inspired by the 1920s Greenwich Village avant-garde. She begins a romantic relationship with Roger, a young white man who seems to move among New York's "Four Hundred", the social elite. Their relationship, however, is based in several deceptions. In one of the novel's most important scenes, Angela's sister is newly arrived at Pennsylvania Station from Philadelphia. Angela, who has come to the station to meet her sister, sees her lover. Aware that his racism will cause him to reject her, she brushes by her darker-complected sister, leaving her standing alone in the crowd. Angela's and Roger's deceptions of each other and of themselves lie also in their use of each other for personal gain: Angela seeks Roger's financial comfort; Roger seeks the convenience of sex without having to introduce his new find to his father, whose deep concern is for his future daughter-in-law's pedigree. Roger's abandonment of Angela, the unmasking, to Angela, of his solely sexual intentions, and the mistreatment of Miss Powell, a young artist of African-American heritage, lead Angela to reveal her racial heritage and lose her standing with several of her acquaintances. However, true friends and her sister urge her to travel to Paris to become an artist, and Anthony, a fellow art school classmate of mixed heritage who watched his father die under the hands of a racist mob in the South, declares his love for Angela. It seems at the end, Anthony and Angela may come to terms with America's racist past and their own brighter future.

The subtitle of the book, ''A Novel without a Moral'', can be understood as follows: once Angela leaves Philadelphia for New York and a traditional African-American home for life on her own, her morality is no longer clearly defined for her. The “moral to the story” is slowly created for the reader and for the main characters as Angela learns and understands the life lessons that New York affords her.

In the mid-1920s, a young Danny Fisher and his family move into a new house in a Brooklyn suburb. Within a few years, however, the Great Depression begins and Danny must use his one talent, boxing, as a means of supporting his family.

After a few years, the Fishers have lost their house and are living in a cramped apartment in the city. Danny continues to box, much against his father's wish, and dates a young Italian Catholic woman, Nellie Petito, much to the chagrin of his mother. Danny's boxing skills attract the attention of hoodlums, and he is offered a large sum of money to lose the Golden Gloves championship, a fight he could win easily and which would bring him professional fame as well as, he hopes, his father's acceptance.

Danny accepts the bribe but beats his opponent. After going on the run for two years in Coney Island, he returns to marry his sweetheart. Their early married life is marred by the death of their first-born child Vicky, in poverty.

Danny seeks out his former manager and goes into business with him as a black marketeer. Such activity brings him into contact with the very criminals he previously cheated.

The story concludes with Danny's death in counterpoint to arrival of new life.

The title is taken from the Jewish tradition of leaving a stone on the headstone when visiting a grave.

In 1995, aliens known as Reticulans have attacked El Cadron, a small border town in Texas. The player has arrived to save the townspeople, who have been disappearing. The aliens have clever ways of disguising themselves as townspeople. The player's mission is to do away with the Reticulans, but they cannot be killed with regular guns. The player is armed with four BattleCams, with a stunning particle beam that stops the alien temporarily. The player must rid the world of the Reticulan menace before the entire area is destroyed by a nuclear bomb.

Four special operatives will help the player by providing clues to the Reticulan base. When a special operative is fighting with a Reticulan, the player has to shoot the enemy before they can abduct the special operative. After the enemy is disposed of, the special operative can look at its pendant. On each pendant is a number and a shape that corresponds to a special lock. Once the code is cracked, the vaulted door opens to reveal the Reticulans' weapons arsenal and a cold storage area.

After the base is secured, all of the player's BattleCams become reprogrammed with Reticulan weaponry. Upon learning of this development, the Reticulans deploy stormtroopers to destroy the town and its people. The Special Forces fight back as the areas of the town explode into debris.

In a desperate attempt to stop the Special Forces, the Reticulans abduct Reece, take him to their mothership, and prepare to take off. DiSalvo rigs a special BattleCam armed with a giant alien cannon. With a single well-placed shot, the mothership is obliterated, saving the town and Earth from the Reticulan army.

During a heavy rainstorm, Tom and Uncle Charlie, two armored truck drivers, are collecting money from banks in the town of Huntingburg, Indiana, which has been evacuated due to flooding. They are ambushed by Jim and his gang of armed robbers, Kenny, Mr. Mehlor, and Ray. Charlie calls the National Guard and is shot dead by Kenny as Tom escapes and hides the cash in a cemetery.

The gang chases Tom, who takes refuge in a nearby church. There he is mistaken for a looter by Karen who knocks him out. Tom wakes up in a cell and tells Sheriff Mike Collig about the gang and the money. Sheriff Collig and Chief Deputy Wayne Bryce leave him locked up and investigate, whilst Deputy Phil is ordered to take Karen out of town. Karen pushes Phil out of the boat to return to protect the church, which she is restoring.

The town's dam operator Hank is forced to open a spillway, causing a large wave and deeper flooding. Tom is trapped in his cell as the water rises. After protecting the church, Karen rescues him and they hide from the gang. Kenny is electrocuted. They enter a house and are mistaken for looters by the elderly residents Doreen and Henry Sears, who have refused to evacuate and are protecting their property. Henry is persuaded to give Tom their boat to return to the armored truck. Resurfacing from the submerged truck, he finds the gang holding the elderly couple hostage. Tom says he will tell them where the money is.

Jim reveals to Tom that Uncle Charlie was in cahoots with the gang, and did not actually call the National Guard; he was only killed because Kenny was not told Uncle Charlie was on their side. Tom finds the money has disappeared. They are ambushed by Sheriff Collig and his deputies plus Hank, who have found Karen and intend to keep the money for themselves.

Mr. Mehlor and Ray are killed in the shootout, and Jim and Tom escape and hide in the church. Wayne takes Karen to her house intending to rape her. The others petrol bomb the church and drive their boats through the stained glassed windows. Karen stabs and kills Wayne. Hank shoots Phil for not shooting Tom when he had the chance.

The dam overtop alarm sounds. Collig suggests Tom and Jim should let Hank and him go with a couple of the bags of money. Tom agrees, but Jim does not. Tom leaves to try to save Karen, before Collig shoots Jim with a revolver he was hiding, although Jim isn't badly hurt. Collig and Hank escape in a boat. Hank is pushed out by Collig and is killed in a gas explosion.

Tom finds Karen handcuffed to a banister. He frees her and they climb to the roof to avoid the water where they are caught by Collig. Jim comes from behind them in a boat. Collig shoots at him, disabling the steering, forcing him to go over the roof. As he does so, the engine breaks off and collides with the sheriff, knocking him into the water. Collig tries to shoot Karen as he grabs a bag of money, but Tom and Jim shoot the corrupt sheriff dead. Tom tells Jim he should leave, just as the State Police arrive. Jim picks up Collig's bag of money and rows away, as Tom tells Karen the fire damage to her church was not too bad and can be repaired.

In 2053, William 'Blade' Hunter is a former Los Angeles Police Department officer turned private detective. When the mayor's rebellious daughter Chandra is found dead and horribly mutated after experimenting with a new designer drug called MTZ, Blade is called upon to track down those responsible. Blade makes contact with a streetwise friend of Chandra nicknamed "the Jake", who indicates Chen Lu as the dealer who had been supplying Chandra with the lethal drug. Blade goes to Chen Lu's apartment only to find Lu assassinated with an overdose of MTZ, as a punishment for attracting public attention by causing the death of a powerful man's daughter.

As Blade tries to reconcile with his girlfriend Karyn, who works at the Crime Records Bureau, he enlists her help to track down Lu's accomplices and discover the mutagenic nature of the MTZ drug. It is revealed that the MTZ business is part of an underground Chinese Mafia operation led by Deng Hwang, a megalomaniacal drug kingpin intent on world domination. Blade also meets an old fortune teller, who tells him the present year coincides with that of the foretold coming of Chinese dragon Bahumat.

Blade disrupts the MTZ production schedule by blowing up the local drug plant, but in doing so he is spotted by Hwang's men. Hwang has the Jake captured in an attempt to lure Blade into a trap, but Blade manages to rescue the Jake and later sabotages the Triad's plans to poison the Hollywood reservoir with MTZ and exterminate the population of Los Angeles. In retaliation, Hwang has Karyn kidnapped and strapped to a chair, threatening to inject MTZ into her system.

Blade infiltrates Hwang's headquarters and, depending on the player's actions, either manages or fails to rescue Karyn. He eventually comes face-to-face with Hwang himself, who suddenly transforms into the dragon Bahumat. In a climactic final battle, Bahumat is defeated by Blade. Outside the headquarters, Blade is greeted by the mayor but angrily punches him for using Blade as a pawn in his crackdown operation and endangering his life and Karyn's. Blade then walks away either with Karyn, if she has survived, or alone.

One night, two siblings —Samantha and Johnathan— come across a butterfly while exploring a grassy field. Enchanted by the butterfly's haunting beauty, Samantha chases after it. Johnathan follows reluctantly, repeating their grandmother's warnings about ghosts who roam the area and turn people into butterflies. The butterfly leads Samantha into a mansion, where she becomes trapped. As Johnathan, the player must explore the mansion, overcome several puzzles, and escape with his sister before the pair of them become permanent residents.

While exploring the mansion, the player encounters several ghosts, who appear in the form of butterflies: A pampered young girl. She seems friendly at first, but is actually a conniving brat. An Australian butterfly collector. He seems anxious for the boy to become a butterfly and join the collection. A painter, who is in a perpetually dreamy, absent-minded state. An Eastern European tavern wench. She cackles menacingly and seems amused by the children's predicament. *A piano-playing southern belle, who longs to touch the keys again.

The film is set in Elizabethan England.

Lord Edward Whitman, a wicked magistrate, presides over the trial of a young woman. Ruling that she is a witch, he has her branded, whipped through the streets, then placed in the village stocks. That night, Whitman hosts a feast at his home as his henchmen search the countryside for the killers of a sheep. Two poor teenagers are pulled into the hall. A burst of wolf-like howling from outside the walls warns that they may be "devil-marked". Both are killed in an ensuing struggle. Whitman's wife, Lady Patricia, calls Whitman a murderer for this. When Whitman's oldest son, Sean, rapes Lady Patricia, Whitman decides he wants to "clean up" the witches in the area.

Assisted by Sean, Whitman goes hunting in the hills for witches. His armed posse breaks up what is apparently meant to be a witches' Black Sabbath. He kills several of them and tells the rest to scatter to the hills and never return. This angers the leader of the coven, Oona. To get revenge on the Whitman family, Oona summons a demonic spirit to destroy the family. Unfortunately, the spirit takes possession of the loyal servant, Roderick, who Maureen Whitman has been in love with for years. Roderick begins to systematically kill off members of the Whitman family, including Sean and Lady Patricia.

Eventually, Harry, Whitman's son from Cambridge, and a priest named Father Tom, find Oona and her coven conjuring the death of Maureen. They kill Oona and her coven, and Roderick, who was attacking Maureen, breaks off and leaves her. However, he soon returns and attacks Whitman. Maureen shoots the demon in the head, apparently killing him.

Exhilarated that the curse is over, Whitman plans to leave the house by coach with his remaining children. On the way, he stops at the sematary so he can reassure himself Roderick is dead. To his horror, he finds the coffin empty. Shocked, Whitman hurries back to the carriage. Once inside, he finds Maureen and Harry dead. It is revealed that his driver, Bully Boy, was killed by Roderick, who is now driving the coach. The film ends with Whitman screeching his driver's name in terror as the coach heads for parts unknown.

After an ''Introduction to the Tales of My Landlord'', supposedly written by the novel's (fictional) editor Jedediah Cleishbotham, the first chapter by the (fictional) author Peter Pattieson describes Robert Paterson ('Old Mortality'), a Scotsman of the 18th century, who late in life decided to travel around Scotland re-engraving the tombs of 17th-century Covenanter martyrs. Pattieson describes at length meeting Robert Paterson, hearing his anecdotes, and finding other stories of the events to present an unbiased picture.

The novel then describes a wapenshaw held in 1679 by Lady Margaret Bellenden, life-rentrix of the barony of Tillietudlem. This was a show of her support for the Royalist cause, but most of her tenants favoured the opposing Covenanters (who wanted the re-establishment of presbyterianism in Scotland) and she has to enlist her unwilling servants. After her supporters are duly mustered, the main sport is a shoot at the popinjay in which the Cavalier favourite is narrowly defeated by Henry Morton, son of a Covenanter. He is introduced to Lady Margaret and her lovely granddaughter Edith Bellenden, with whom he is in love.

During celebrations of his popinjay victory in the inn that evening, Morton stands up for John Balfour of Burley against bullying by Cavalier dragoons. That night, Burley seeks shelter at Morton's house; Morton reluctantly agrees. It emerges that Burley was one of the assassins of Archbishop James Sharp. In the morning they have to flee Cavalier patrols. As a consequence, Morton finds himself outlawed, and joins Burley in the uprising at the Battle of Drumclog. During this battle a small but well organised group of Covenanters defeated a force of dragoons led by John Graham of Claverhouse. However, after this initial success, Scott traces the growth of factionalism, which hastened its defeat at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, by forces led by the Duke of Monmouth and John Graham of Claverhouse.

Henry Morton's involvement in the rebellion causes a conflict of loyalties for him, since Edith Bellenden belongs to a Royalist family who oppose the uprising. Henry's beliefs are not as extreme as those of Burley and many other rebel leaders, which leads to his involvement in the factional disputes. The novel also shows their oppressors, led by Claverhouse, to be extreme in their beliefs and methods. Comic relief is provided by Cuddie Headrigg, a peasant who works as a manservant to Morton. He reluctantly joins the rebellion because of his personal loyalty to Morton, as well as his own fanatical Covenanting mother, Mause Headrigg.

Following the defeat at Bothwell Bridge, Morton flees the battle field. He is soon captured by some of the extreme Covenanters, who see him as a traitor, and get ready to execute him. He is rescued by Claverhouse, who has been led to the scene by Cuddie Headrigg. Morton later witnesses the trial and torture of fellow rebels, before going into exile.

The novel ends with Morton returning to Scotland in 1689 to find a changed political and religious climate following the overthrow of James VII, and to be reconciled with Edith.

The Hatcher family has a new baby in the house in the beginning. Several months before the family temporarily moves from New York City to Princeton, New Jersey, the baby is born. It is a girl, and she is named Tamara Roxanne, who is called The Baby for weeks. Peter's 4-year-old brother Fudge is extremely jealous of his new baby sister, who earns the nickname "Tootsie" from their mother Ann's cute speak and their grandmother Muriel's favorite old song. Peter deals with the fallout from Fudge's various problems, which include a spat with his teacher who refuses to use the name "Fudge". When his teacher refuses to call him Fudge, he kicks her. He also attempts to get rid of his sister, Tootsie, and is famous for his constant desire to involve himself in Peter's activities, especially with Peter's new friend, Alex Santo. In the end, the Hatchers decide to move back to New York City, a decision punctuated by Tootsie's first word which she learns while undergoing a diaper change.

The book focuses on a nine-year-old boy named Peter Hatcher. Peter is frustrated with the horrendous behavior demonstrated by his two-year-old brother, Farley Drexel "Fudge" Hatcher, who frequently goes unpunished. Peter becomes annoyed with Fudge because he often disturbs Peter's pet turtle, Dribble, which he won at his best friend Jimmy Fargo's birthday party. Furthermore, Fudge throws non-stop temper tantrums, goes through a finicky phase of abstaining from eating altogether, and emulates Peter's behavior, throwing tantrums if it is prohibited. Nevertheless, their parents, Warren and Anne, dote on Fudge, to Peter's anger and frustration.

For months, Fudge's antics continue; breaking his front teeth after catapulting himself off the jungle gym at the local playground when he decides to fly, vandalizing Peter's school project, and taking off at a movie theater. One day, to Peter's absolute misery, he returns home to discover Dribble is missing from his bowl, Fudge claiming to have swallowed him. These proclamations prove to be correct, and Fudge is rushed to the hospital, where Dribble is extracted, to Anne's relief. However, Dribble has died in Fudge's stomach, and no one, especially Fudge, seems to care. Peter is devastated over the loss of him; Warren and Anne sympathetically compensate by adopting a dog, which Peter appropriately names "Turtle" in memory of Dribble.

The plot involves Spider-Man's wife, Mary Jane, being kidnapped by Mysterio. To save her, Spider-Man must navigate through various environments and puzzles divided into separate acts, representing Mysterio's obsession with film. The various rooms are often parodies of film genres.

Eric Cartman's grandmother dies and leaves $1 million to him in her will. Rather than invest the money or donate it to charity, Cartman purchases North Park Funland, an amusement park owned by Frank Fun. As Frank signs the park over to Cartman, he admits it has been a financial failure. Cartman is not worried, as he plans to open the park exclusively for himself so he can avoid standing in long lines. The deal is finalized, and he changes the name of the park to Cartmanland.

Meanwhile, Kyle Broflovski begins to question his faith in God upon learning of Cartman's fortune. The stress caused by this discovery also gives Kyle an inflamed hemorrhoid. He and Stan Marsh attempt to sneak into Cartmanland, defying Cartman's expulsion of any guests. Kyle's hemorrhoid pops as he and Stan try to climb over the perimeter fence, and Cartman angrily sends them away. The hemorrhoid becomes infected, causing Kyle, who is now hospitalized, to fully lose his faith as his health begins to deteriorate. His parents attempt to cheer him up by telling him the Biblical story of Job, but they leave out the ending where Job receives even greater wealth and a happy family, leaving Kyle horrified that God would allow a good man to suffer so badly just to settle a dispute with Satan.

Cartman tries to hire a security guard for the park after what happened, but the man he chooses insists on receiving a salary instead of being paid in free rides. Having now spent his entire inheritance, Cartman has no choice but to let a few people into the park each day in order to pay the guard. Expenses for ride maintenance, refreshments, utilities, and added security begin to mount over the next few days, forcing Cartman to sell more and more tickets to cover them. Business experts misinterpret Cartman's attempts to keep the park to himself as a genius marketing ploy and the popularity of the park soars. Kyle falls deeper into despair upon hearing these reports and flatlines, losing all will to live.

Infuriated by the long lines of attendees that now fill the park, Cartman demands that Frank buy it back from him. Frank agrees and gives Cartman his money back. Just as he's leaving the park, Cartman runs into the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who take $500,000 in taxes and penalties, stemming from his failure to pay taxes on the park's revenue, and the other $500,000 is taken by a lawyer on behalf of Stuart and Carol McCormick, who sued Cartman over their son Kenny's death on one of the rides. Cartman is also ordered to pay the couple's legal fees of $13,000. Now deep in debt, Cartman pleads for Frank to return the park to him, but Frank refuses due to the park's newfound success. Stan persuades Kyle's doctor to bring him to the park, just in time to see Cartman be sprayed with Mace by the security guard he hired. Cartman's misery brings Kyle back from the verge of death, his (now sentient) hemorrhoid subsides, and he almost instantly recovers, now with both his faith in God and will to live renewed, while a crowd, including himself, his parents, the doctor, and Stan, watch Cartman have an emotional breakdown.

In Imperial Russia during the late 1890s, a rabbi's wife and her young son Zalmie escape to America while the rabbi is killed by the Cossacks. Shortly after their arrival in New York City, Zalmie is recruited by Louie, a performer at a burlesque house, to hand out chorus slips (sheets of paper with song chorus lyrics, used to enable audience members to sing along). As Zalmie grows into adolescence, he spends more time with Louie backstage at burlesque shows. When Zalmie's mother dies in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he begins working with Louie full-time at a small theatre. Though Zalmie aspires to be a singer, he is beginning to enter puberty and his changing voice becomes a significant obstacle. When World War I strikes, Zalmie travels the globe performing for the troops as the bottom half of a pantomime horse and sustains a wound to his throat during a German air raid, which ends his singing career.

When Zalmie returns to New York, he briefly continues performing as a clown, and falls in love with a stripper named Bella, vowing to make her a famous singer and getting involved with mobsters in order to do so. After Zalmie impregnates her, he uses money from mob boss Nicky Palumbo to pay for their wedding. Bella achieves modest success, but she is killed after opening a package containing a bomb intended for Zalmie. Their son, Benny, who is already an introverted child, focuses all of his efforts into becoming a talented jazz pianist. Benny marries Palumbo's daughter at Zalmie's request and enlists to fight in World War II seeking redemption for his family, despite pleas from his father. Benny is killed in Nazi Germany when he stops to play on an abandoned piano and is caught off-guard by a Nazi soldier; Benny begins to play Lili Marleen and the Nazi closes his eyes in bliss, but when the song ends, the Nazi pauses only to thank Benny before riddling him and the piano with gunfire. Benny's wife and son, named Tony, now live in a suburban Long Island town, and they watch as Zalmie testifies against Palumbo on television, calling him a rat.

A teenage Tony steals his stepfather's car and drives across the country for four weeks, ending up in Kansas, where he spends the day washing dishes at a diner and spends the night with a waitress. In California, Tony takes another job dishwashing, but soon grows tired of it and quits. A six-piece rock group invites him to write songs for them after hearing him playing a harmonica under their doorstep. The band becomes successful but slowly starts to decompose because of the heroin addictions of female lead singer Frankie Heart and Tony himself. Tony becomes addicted to drugs after being hospitalized from falling off a stage while on acid at one of Frankie's shows. Frankie and the band's drummer, Johnny Webb marry, but divorce after two weeks, and Frankie begins an affair with Tony. In Kansas, the band is set to perform after Jimi Hendrix, but Frankie overdoses backstage, and Tony meets a blonde, blue-eyed boy, Little Pete, whom Tony realizes is his son, conceived the night he spent with the waitress.

Tony moves back to New York City accompanied by Pete, where he becomes heavily involved with drug dealing. Pete makes a small amount of money playing the acoustic guitar, but Tony takes any money that Pete earns to buy drugs for himself. One day, Tony and Pete argue over the latter's guitar, where Pete reveals that he knows Tony is his father. After he tells the story of his own father, Tony gives Benny's harmonica to Pete, then takes Pete's guitar to pawn it, telling Pete to wait on the city bench they're at. The next morning, a man approaches Pete and gives him a small package of drugs to sell and the pawn slip for his guitar and tells Pete that Tony said goodbye to him. After years of selling drugs to rock bands, Pete refuses to sell the band members any more cocaine unless they are willing to listen to his music. Playing "Night Moves", his talent stuns both the band and the management and they agree to record and hire him on the spot. The film ends with Pete performing in concert with the band, images of his ancestors appearing during his performance.

Mike Dawson is a successful advertising executive and writer who has recently bought an old mansion on Ventura Drive (named after Ventura Boulevard) in the small town of Woodland Hills. On his first night at the house, Mike has a nightmare about being imprisoned by a machine that shoots an alien embryo into his brain. He wakes up with a large headache and, after taking a painkiller and a shower, explores the mansion. He finds clues about the previous owner's death, which reveal the existence of a parallel universe called the Dark World ruled by sinister aliens called the Ancients.

On the second day, he travels to that universe through the living room mirror and meets the Keeper of the Scrolls, a friendly darkworlder. She tells him that the nightmare he had on his first night was real and warns him that if the embryo—the eponymous Dark Seed—is born, it will kill him and all of humanity. The only way to stop this, she says, is to destroy the Ancients' Power Source.

On the third and final day, Mike executes an elaborate plan that culminates with the Ancient ship's departure on the Dark World, depriving them of their power source, and the destruction of the living room mirror, sealing the Ancients out of the Normal World. The game ends with the town librarian visiting Mike and telling him she found some pills in her purse prescribed to Mike, although she doesn't understand how they got there. The medication will presumably kill the embryo inside his head. A morphing animation reveals that, unbeknownst to the librarian, she is the Keeper of the Scrolls' counterpart. Mike then states that he's just beginning to understand.

Renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is invited to give a lecture at the United States Capitol, at the invitation apparently from his mentor, a 33rd degree Mason named Peter Solomon, who is the head of the Smithsonian Institution. Solomon has also asked him to bring a small, sealed package which he had entrusted to Langdon years earlier. When Langdon arrives at the Capitol, however, he learns that the invitation he received was not from Solomon, but from Solomon's kidnapper, Mal'akh posing as Solomon's assistant, who has left Solomon's severed right hand in the middle of the Capitol Rotunda in a recreation of the Hand of Mysteries. Mal'akh then contacts Langdon, charging him with finding both the Mason's Pyramid, which Masons believe is hidden somewhere in Washington, D.C., and the Lost Word, lest Solomon be murdered.

Langdon meets Inoue Sato, the head of the CIA's Office of Security. Sato claims that Mal'akh poses a threat to the national security of the U.S. and that his capture is more important than Peter's rescue, although she refuses to elaborate. Examining Solomon's hand, they discover a clue leading them to Solomon's Masonic altar in a room in the Capitol's sub-basement, where they find a small pyramid lacking a capstone, with an inscription carved into it.

Sato then confronts Langdon with the security x-ray taken of his bag when he entered the Capitol which reveals a smaller pyramid in the package Langdon brought in response to the request by the kidnapper posing as Solomon's assistant. Langdon explains that he was unaware of its contents, but Sato, refusing to believe it, attempts to take Langdon into custody. Before she can arrest him, however, she and Capitol Police Chief Trent Anderson are assaulted by Warren Bellamy, the Architect of the Capitol and a Freemason, who then flees with Langdon in the confusion. He later explains to Langdon that he too has been in contact with Mal'akh and wants Langdon's assistance in rescuing Peter.

Mal'akh is revealed to be a Freemason with tattoos covering almost his entire body. He infiltrated the organization in order to obtain an ancient source of power, which he believes Langdon can unlock for him in return for Peter Solomon's life. Several chapters also delve into Mal'akh's history with Peter Solomon: many years earlier, Peter bequeathed a large sum of inheritance money to his rebellious son, Zachary, who then fled the Solomon household and led a reckless life in Europe until he was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for smuggling drugs. Peter flew to Turkey but decided to have Zachary extradited in a week's time instead of getting him released immediately in order to teach him a lesson. Zachary was apparently murdered by his cellmate who got his hands on Zachary's fortune and fled to the island of Syros in Greece to lead a luxurious life under the name Andros Dareios. Dareios, however, soon grew tired of his life. Apparently having spoken with Zachary about Solomon's life as a Mason, Dareios broke into Solomon's home to find the pyramid, but accidentally killed Peter's mother Isabel and was in turn shot and left to fall into a frozen river by a vengeful Solomon. Surviving the fall, Dareios nursed himself back to health, covered his scars and eventually his entire body with tattoos and set off on a mission to infiltrate the Freemasons and gain access to their secrets, adopting the name Mal'akh.

As Langdon deals with the events into which he has been thrust, Mal'akh destroys the Smithonsonian-sponsored laboratory of Dr. Katherine Solomon, Peter's younger sister, where she has conducted experiments in Noetic Science, in the process ambushing and almost killing Katherine in a cat-and-mouse chase, but Katherine manages to escape and meet up with Langdon and Bellamy. Eventually, when cornered by the authorities, Bellamy is forced to give himself up while Langdon and Katherine escape. Both are later apprehended by Sato's team. Following clues regarding Mal'akh's previous identity as Peter Solomon's psychiatrist, Dr. Christopher Abaddon, Sato allows Langdon and Katherine to rush to his mansion to confront him, but Mal'akh ambushes them and murders their CIA escort. Meanwhile, as he is being interrogated by Sato, Bellamy expresses belief that Sato is working with Mal'akh but Sato assures Bellamy that she is also pursuing Mal'akh in the interest of national security and displays evidence that visibly shocks Bellamy.

Mal'akh places Langdon into an airtight sensory deprivation tank, where he interrogates Langdon by slowly filling the tank with liquid. He is able to convince Langdon to decipher the code at the pyramid's base, but continues to fill the tank until Langdon drowns and apparently dies. Mal'akh then ties Katherine to a chair and inserts an open-ended transfusion needle into her arm and leaves her to bleed to death then flees with a weakened and wheelchair-bound Peter Solomon to the Temple Room of the Scottish Rite's House of the Temple. He uses the threat of not calling an ambulance for Katherine as further coercion for Peter's cooperation. Sato leads a team of agents to the mansion after Langdon and Katherine's escort fails to check in and are able to save Katherine's life. After a near-death experience, Langdon is revealed to have survived due to the "water" in the tank actually being breathable oxygenated liquid and the tank being a device for meditation. Sato and Langdon race to the House of the Temple where Mal'akh threatens to release a heavily edited video showing government officials performing secret Masonic rituals (the same video that Sato showed to Bellamy), which without context, appears highly disturbing. Mal'akh forces the Word—the unpronounceable circumpunct—out of Peter and tattoos it on his head on the last portion of unmarked skin on his body. Mal'akh then orders Peter to sacrifice him, as he believes that it is his destiny to become a demonic spirit and lead the forces of evil. When Peter claims that he will do so without hesitation to avenge his son and mother, Mal'akh shocks Peter by revealing that he is actually Zachary Solomon himself, having conspired with the prison warden to fake his death by disfiguring the body of another inmate beyond recognition (at the same time, Katherine and Bellamy discover several photos of Zachary in Greece after his supposed death that show his gradual transformation into Mal'akh). With tears in his eyes, Peter prepares to stab Zachary but ultimately cannot bring himself to do so and drops the knife just as Langdon arrives and tackles him. Director Sato arrives at the Temple in a helicopter, which smashes the Temple's skylight, the shards of which fatally impale Zachary. The CIA then thwart Zachary's plan to transmit the video to several leading media channels using an EMP blast, disabling a cell tower in the network path leading from Zachary's laptop computer. Katherine arrives and she and Langdon then share a tearful reunion with Peter and mourn Zachary's death. Zachary is only briefly able to lament his body's mutilation before dying.

Later, Peter informs Langdon that the circumpunct Zachary tattooed on his head is not the Word. He also informs Katherine that he made back-ups of all of her noetic research data on his own computer, meaning her research can continue. Deciding to take Langdon to the true secret behind the Word, Peter leads him to the room atop the Washington Monument and tells him that the Word—a common Christian Bible, the Word of God—lies in the monument's cornerstone, buried in the ground beneath the monument's staircase. Langdon realizes that the words inscribed in the base of aluminum capstone (Masonic pyramid) atop the Monument spelled out ''Laus Deo'' which translate to ''Praise God''.

Peter tells Langdon that the Masons believe that the Bible is an esoteric allegory written by humanity, and that, like most religious texts around the globe, it contains veiled instructions for harnessing humanity's natural God-like qualities—similar to Katherine's noetic research—and is not meant to be interpreted as the commands of an all-powerful deity. This interpretation has been lost amid centuries of scientific skepticism and fundamentalist zealotry. The Masons have (metaphorically) buried it, believing that, when the time is right, its rediscovery will usher in a new era of human enlightenment.

''Edge of Chaos'' is set in the 24th century, 100 years after the first game, in an isolated part of space called the Badlands Cluster. The star cluster is far removed from Earth, the Core Systems, and their central governing body, the New Alliance; also, the Alliance government was in a state of near-collapse due to corruption and massive overspending. As a result, huge corporations step in to take control, and they rule quite tyrannically.

The game begins with a CGI video showing the murder of 12-year-old Cal Johnston's father by industrial heir Caleb Maas. The player then assumes the role of young Cal as he is instructed in space ship piloting by the digitized personality of Commonwealth Navy captain Jefferson Clay, a character familiar from the original '' ''. After getting used to basics of space flight, Clay guides Cal to the base of his space pirating grandmother. After some more practice missions, Cal encounters the infamous Caleb Maas. Trying to avenge his father, Cal ends up in prison instead. The story then fast-forwards 15 years showing a now-adult Cal Johnston with some of his fellow inmates escaping the prison space station, where the core gameplay begins.

Upon returning to his grandmother's base, Cal begins to set up his own piracy organization. Other groups in Hoffer's Wake begin to notice his work, and as he advances in fame and fortune he learns more about the current situation affecting the Badlands. For a long time, a group called the Marauders have been attacking at random—essentially terrorizing the people of the Cluster. Despite numerous attempts to run them down, the Badlands government and gangs have had no luck in stopping the attacks: the Marauders don't seem weakened even by major losses, and they don't seem to have any single base of operations.

The player is soon given access to other systems in the Cluster, with the assignment to find help fighting the Marauders in Hoffer's Wake. Most are only too happy to lend ships, supplies, and personnel once their own Marauder problems are taken care of, and the Marauders are successfully driven from Hoffer's Wake before long. However even that loss didn't slow them down, and further investigation on Cal's part reveals that they have been maintaining their primary base in the Dante system, long abandoned and thought uninhabitable after the unstable binary star flooded the system with radiation and cut it off from outside travel. The Rebel Fleet, now very large and well-organized, mounts a successful assault—only to be nearly destroyed anyway when the Marauders receive help from the Maas Corporation, who started the Marauders to "keep you peasants in line."

The Rebels can't hope to directly match Maas's forces, so they fall back and try to think of alternative strategies. They conclude that the most effective action would be to find help outside of the Badlands, so they attack and secure the Santa Romera Jump Accelerator, a highly advanced piece of technology that allows travel over significantly longer distances than even Lagrange points. Cal arrives in the Fomalhaut system in the Gagarin Cluster to find much the same situation as in the Badlands: oppressive corporate rule, roving Marauders, and a desperate need for assistance.

After working for a while, Cal receives a seemingly innocuous mission in which he is sent to spy on a number of corporate cruisers in the Gagarin Cluster. The story takes a sharp turn when, against Caleb Maas's wishes, corporate scientists activate an alien artifact that Cal himself stole for them, thinking to use it as some sort of weapon. The device goes out of control and begins to emit glowing red alien ships that eat (and thus destroy) any advanced power sources (such as ships) in their path; within days, the entire Gagarin Cluster is overrun. Cal and the fleet hold the aliens back from the Fomalhaut Jump Accelerator as refugees escape, then dash through at the last second and destroy the Accelerator, effectively isolating the Badlands indefinitely from the rest of human civilization. Cal remarks that they are safe from the aliens, but he's not sure about human civilization elsewhere.

The gameplay is a mix of free movement in space and missions. In free play, Cal can act independently, move throughout the Hoffer's Wake system and eventually the entire Badlands Cluster, and steal cargo. Game missions allow the player to gain new weapons and ships, and contribute to the rebellions against the corporations that control the Badlands.

At the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets out across Cape Breton Island to find a place to live. Working as a piano tuner, he meets and eventually elopes with 13-year-old Materia Mahmoud, much to the anger of her wealthy, traditional Lebanese parents. Materia gives birth to their first daughter, Kathleen, and James subsequently becomes disgusted his wife, realizing that he actually married "a child". Materia regrets marrying James, and does not take to the child. James, however, ignores and neglects Materia while spoiling and smothering Kathleen. Materia is taken in by the kind neighbor Mrs. Luvovitz, who teaches her to sew and cook. She grows to hate James and their daughter Kathleen.

Materia senses danger in James' obsession with their daughter and sees it as her duty to keep him distracted and occupied (especially in the bedroom). James eventually impregnates Materia three more times in quick succession. She gives birth to three girls, Mercedes, Frances and Lily, but Lily dies a crib death shortly after. She is from here on in the novel referred to as "Other Lily". The novel then explores the girls' relationship with their troubled father; their secretive, silent mother; and friendships that grow between them as they try to figure out their family's strange and mysterious history. As Kathleen grows older, she is perceived by her schoolmates as snobby, and they turn against her. Her father James is her only friend, and when he travels off to war, Kathleen is crushed.

Kathleen befriends her younger sisters, and James returns from war a shadow of his former self, but still feels an attraction to his eldest daughter. He sends her to New York City to train with a highly-regarded voice instructor and to fulfill her dream of becoming an opera singer at the Metropolitan Opera House. During her absence, James receives a letter from an "Anonymous Well-Wisher" suggesting that Kathleen may have gotten into trouble in New York. He brings her home where it becomes apparent that she is pregnant. Kathleen spends her pregnancy hidden in her family home, and dies giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Frances believes the babies must be baptized, and attempts to do so in the creek behind the house the night of their birth. James catches her, and believes she is trying to drown them. He drags her away and the male twin, named Ambrose by Frances, is accidentally left to drown in the creek. The female twin, Lily, contracts polio from the contaminated water in the creek, but survives the disease. Mercedes, Frances and Lily are all raised to believe Materia is Lily's mother. Materia dies and the remaining Piper sisters come to depend on one another for survival.

Frances, beaten and all-but-disowned by her father, causes trouble in school, eventually getting herself expelled, despite Mercedes' best efforts to keep her in check. Frances finds solace in her dolls, matinee movies, her late mother's old hope chest, and her darling younger sister Lily. Frances eventually runs away and ends up in her Lebanese uncle's pub as entertainment and a pint-sized whore. She discovers her long-lost grandfathers house, and then becomes obsessed with his African maid, Teresa. She stalks and seduces Teresa's brother, Leo, and becomes impregnated by him. She dreams of becoming a mother to a black child, but her son, Aloysius, is pronounced dead at birth and she becomes depressed. After this trauma, Frances and her father slowly reconcile and she even becomes something akin to a confessor for him before he dies years later.

Lily, crippled by the polio she contracted, wears a leather brace. She loves Frances the most of everyone. Lily believes everything Frances tells her, and so believes Ambrose is her guardian angel, and often wishes for him to protect Frances after she left the house.

Mercedes spends her time praying, taking care of the family and working hard at school. She flirts with the idea of a romance with the son of Mrs. Luvovitz, but drags her feet because his Jewish ancestry conflicts with her growing religious devotion and sense of propriety. James, who has become a moonshiner as his primary income source, suffers a severe stroke and Mercedes is slowly consumed by her role as care-taker in the family; becoming severe and controlling as she gives up on any life for herself outside of this role. This culminates in her deception involving Frances' illegitimate mixed-race child: who was in fact given up for adoption by his disapproving aunt. As Frances and their father grow closer in his old age, Mercedes resents their bond, feeling left out and snubbed after all the sacrifices she has made for her family.

Kathleen's diary and old dress is sent home by her caretaker in New York, and after Frances reads it, sends it with Lily to New York, to find Kathleen's lover. As Lily reads through the pages of the diary, we learn of Kathleen's vocal lessons, her instructor she calls the Kaiser, and her illicit love affair with the female black piano accompanist, Rose Lacroix. The romance is a whirlwind, as both women fall madly in love with one another, going to Jazz bars with Rose dressed as a man. James barges into Kathleen's apartment one day to find her in bed with the black woman (whom he mistakes for a man). A furious attack on Rose leads to James' jealous rape of Kathleen, as his sexual desire for her finally overcomes him. This reveals Lily's true father. James eventually confesses everything to Frances, and soon after dies in his reading chair, peacefully. Frances finally reveals the family's darkest secrets to her sister Mercedes, who is firmly in denial. Frances dies as an elderly woman with the help of Mercedes, without ever knowing the actual fate of her child.

The novel ends in New York, as Lily makes her way to Rose's apartment. The two form a friendship and live together for many years, eventually to be visited by a young black man called Anthony, bearing a gift from Mercedes Piper. He delivers a drawing of a family tree, made by Mercedes, finally revealing all the incest, illegitimate children, crib deaths and affairs that make up the Piper family. Anthony is revealed to be Frances' long-lost son Aloysius, and Lily sits him down to tell him all about his mother.

When world peace is threatened by the emergence of a terrorist group called the Black Cross Army, EAGLE (The '''Ea'''rth '''G'''uard '''Le'''ague) is formed to combat the threat. The Black Cross Army sends five operatives to destroy each EAGLE branch in Japan, killing all except for five agents. These surviving agents are summoned to a secret base located underneath the snack shop "Gon", where they are recruited by EAGLE Japan's commander, Gonpachi Edogawa. They become the Himitsu Sentai Gorengers and are given electronic battlesuits that endow them with superhuman strength and speed. The five dedicate themselves to stopping the Black Cross Army and its leader, the Black Cross Führer.

The film displays the Hungarian, Roma, Chinese and Arab dwellers and their alliances and conflicts in a humorous way, embedded into a fictive story of a few schoolchildren's oil-making time-travel and a Romeo and Juliet-type love of a Roma guy towards a white girl.

The novel begins by announcing that today will be the day that a young boy, Robert Caligari, dies. Robert is an extremely odd boy who cannot stop himself from kicking pigs. This begins as a private act of revenge against his sister, Nerys, who is always putting money in her own tin piggy bank. Robert is angry at Nerys constantly rattling the pig in front of him and so takes great pleasure in kicking the pig across the room whenever he is alone.

Robert's obsession with kicking pigs gets worse and one day, he kicks his sister's piggy bank out of the window, causing chaos for his neighbors and a local police officer. The last straw for Robert's mother is when he kicks a rather large woman's bagged pork chops, which she had just bought at the local butcher's shop.

After a local man finally gets revenge on Robert by throwing him over a church wall, Robert realizes that he hates people. While Robert's neighbors soon come to the conclusion that he is a nice young boy, he is plotting revenge. After poisoning his sister's food, he decides to trick an old blind man into crossing a road of busy traffic. Unfortunately for the old man, this proves fatal, yet nobody suspects Robert's involvement.

Robert engineers another, far worse, road accident in the next step of his evil plan. However, in the process of doing so, he finds himself trapped in his secret hideaway, where he is about to face a truly terrible fate.

Secret agent WD-40 Dick Steele has his work cut out for him. Along with the mysterious and lovely Veronique Ukrinsky, Agent 3.14, he must rescue the kidnapped Barbara Dahl and stop the evil genius, a General named Rancor, from seizing control of the entire world.

Rancor was wounded in an earlier encounter and no longer has arms. However, he can "arm" himself by attaching robotic limbs with various weapons attached. Steele is approached by an old friend, agent Steven Bishop, who unsuccessfully tries to recruit him out of retirement. However, when a news report Steele is watching reveals that Bishop has been killed, Steele returns to the agency. Steele given his new assignment by The Director, who also is testing out a variety of elaborate disguises. At headquarters, Steele encounters an old agency nemesis, Norm Coleman, and flirts with the Director's adoring secretary, referred to as Miss Cheevus.

On the job, Steele is assisted by an agent named Kabul, who gives him rides in a never-ending variety of specially designed cars. They seek help from McLuckey, a blond child left home alone, who is very good at fending off intruders. Steele resists the temptations of a dangerous woman he finds waiting for him in bed. But he does work very closely with Agent 3.14, whose father, Professor Ukrinsky is also being held captive by Rancor.

Everything comes to an explosive conclusion at the General's remote fortress, where Steele rescues both Barbara Dahl and Miss Cheevus and launches a literally disarmed Rancor into outer space, saving mankind.

Helmut Sanchez is a young researcher in the employ of renowned Yale professor Werner Hopfgartner. By chance, Helmut discovers a letter written decades ago by his boss mocking guilt over the Holocaust. Appalled, Helmut digs into the scholar's life and travels to Austria and Italy to uncover evidence of Hopfgartner's hateful past. Meanwhile, Hopfgartner's colleague and rival, Regina Neumann, wants to reveal the truth about Hopfgartner's sexual liaisons with vulnerable students before the professor's imminent retirement. Neumann traps Sarah Goodman, an insecure graduate student trying to find her place at Yale, into initiating formal charges of sexual harassment against Hopfgartner. Soon Helmut's intellectual quest for the truth metamorphoses into a journey of justice and blood, one with unforeseen consequences.

The story is told in flashback by a villager (Mervyn Johns): During the Second World War, a group of seemingly authentic British soldiers arrive in the small, fictitious English village of Bramley End. It is the Whitsun weekend so life is even quieter than usual and there is almost no traffic of any kind. At first they are welcomed by the villagers, until doubts set in about their true purpose and identity. After they are revealed to be German soldiers intended to form the vanguard of an invasion of Britain, they round up the residents and hold them captive in the local church. The vicar is shot while sounding the church bell in alarm.

In attempts to reach the outside world, many of the villagers take action. Such plans include writing a message on an egg and giving them to the local paper boy for his mother, but they are crushed when Mrs Fraser's cousin runs over them. Mrs Fraser then puts a note in Cousin Maude's pocket, but she uses it to hold her car window in place; her dog, Edward, then chews it to shreds after it blows onto the back seat. Mrs Collins, the postmistress, manages to kill a German with an axe used for chopping firewood, and tries to telephone for help, but the girls on the telephone exchange see her light and decide that she can wait. Mrs Collins waits, and is killed by another German who walks into the shop. The girl at the exchange then picks up the phone, but gets no response.

The captive civilians attempt to contact and warn the local Home Guard, but are betrayed by the village squire, who is revealed to be a long-time collaborator with the Germans. Members of the local Home Guard are ambushed and shot by the Germans. A young boy, George, escapes from the church. He is shot in the leg by a German, but manages to alert the British Army. British soldiers arrive, and – aided by some of the villagers, including a group of Women's Land Army girls, who have managed to escape, barricade themselves in, and arm themselves – defeat the Germans after a short battle. The squire is shot dead by the vicar's daughter, who discovers his treachery as he attempts to let the Germans into the barricaded house. During the battle, many of the villagers who left to fight are wounded or killed; Mrs Fraser saves the children from a grenade, at the cost of her own life, and Tom's father is shot in the arm and wrenches his ankle as he falls. The British troops then arrive at Bramley End.

The villager retelling the story to the camera shows the Germans' grave in the churchyard and explains proudly: "Yes, that's the only bit of England they got."

Bible professor Russell Carlisle (D. David Morin) confronts and lectures a boy who has stolen marbles from his neighbors, calling his action unjust. The year is 1890 and Carlisle has written a new manuscript entitled ''The Changing Times'', which promotes good morals without discussing Christ. The book is on track to receive a unanimous endorsement from the board of the Grace Bible Seminary. That is, until colleague Dr. Norris Anderson (Gavin MacLeod) objects. Without unanimous endorsement, his book might not do so well. Carlisle and another professor seek a unanimity rule change, but the dean insists that Carlisle discuss the disagreement with Anderson privately.

Dr. Anderson fears that Carlisle's book could harm coming generations, arguing that teaching good moral values without mentioning Christ is wrong. Using a secret time machine, Anderson sends Carlisle over 100 years into the future, offering him a glimpse of where his beliefs will lead.

Arriving in the early 21st century, Carlisle is shocked to find that half of all marriages end in divorce (instead of 5% in 1890), teenagers talk openly about deceiving their parents, films contain blasphemous language and people who go to church are so bored by the sermons that they need extra activities. He tries to convince a laundromat worker, Eddie Martinez (Paul Rodriguez), to go to church and read the Bible. Two churchgoing men grow suspicious of Carlisle, who acts as if he is seeing everything for the first time. They confront him as he is about to be transported back to the past. As the sky grows thunderous, Carlisle seems delirious as he talks about how the second coming of Christ is drawing near. Carlisle vanishes. The men look at where he vanished and one of the men says with dread, "I think we just missed the Rapture."

Carlisle rematerializes in 1890 and excitedly tells Anderson he will revise his book. He gives the thieving boy his own set of marbles and explains that it is Jesus Christ who demands honesty. Anderson tries to learn when the world will come to an end, by trying to send a Bible to the future. The machine won't operate with a target date of 2100, so he tries with progressively earlier decades 2090, 2080 and 2070, which fail. As the film ends, he makes at least two more failed attempts, aiming earlier and earlier, suggesting that either humanity cannot know when the End comes, or that the End will come before the mid-21st century.

In Halifax, Novia Scotia, biology teacher George Anderson (Douglas) earns the nickname "Mousey" from his students when he is unable to dissect a frog. However, when he learns that the child that his pregnant wife (Seberg) is expecting is not his, he follows her to Montreal, where he plans to kill her and her lover.

The player assumes the identity of a young Texas businessman named Alexander Morris, who has come to London during the winter of 1899 to research the strange surroundings involving his brother Quincey's death 10 years earlier. In the process, he meets an English woman named Annisette Bowen and becomes engaged to marry her.

Due largely to their "extremely close relationship", Quincey's good friend, Lord Arthur Holmwood, has proposed Alexander's induction into the mysterious and exclusive Hades Club. However, Alexander Morris soon discovers a part of his brother's life he had no knowledge of: Quincey Morris was part of a group which destroyed the legendary vampire, Count Dracula.

As Alexander Morris, the player must travel to specific locations in London at certain times with certain items gathered throughout Morris' travels in order to gather clues about the events which occur during the game and achieve victory over Dracula.

While the story is based on the film ''Seven Samurai'', its story and plot have more in common with its animated counterpart, ''Samurai 7''. The storyline is divided into chapters:

Natoe encounters the powerful Zex in the Overture Chapter. The game begins as a young samurai known as Natoe is passing through the town during the humanoid invasion of the city. As he passes through the ruined city, he encounters several humanoid foot soldiers, defeating them. He then encounters the Humanoid known as Zex. After seriously wounding him, he meets the fleeing villagers who inquire if he can help protect their village from future humanoid attacks. Natoe declines, and leaves the villagers, fighting more humanoids along the way."Overture: Decadent Moon"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

After encountering his childhood friend Jodie, Natoe works his way through the city, finishing off the remaining humanoids from the prior invasion. He eventually meets up with Kanbei, who convinces him to help out the villagers or they will be overrun by the next invasion of Humanoids. Natoe reluctantly agrees."Chapter 1: To the Silver bridge"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

However, Kanbei realizes that they need more samurai to defend the village. They venture out into various areas to recruit 5 more skilled warriors. Natoe eventually finds the thief Totsuma in the city's Scrapyard area. Natoe defeats Necryl, earning Totsuma's trust and place on the team. Kanbei now tells the team of his former war ally Rojie, and the team set out to the main part of the city to locate him."Chapter 2: Art of Junk life"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

Natoe and the others arrive in the heart of the bustling city to find the whereabouts of Rojie. Discovering his occupation as a bodyguard for a female mob leader named Salla, Natoe goes off to find him, defeating leagues of street thugs and the drug dealer Kyric in the process. He meets the friendly warrior Eight before leaving the district."Chapter 3: Vanishing love petals"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

Rojie now on the team, Natoe recalls the man Eight and suggests to the others that he be enlisted to join the team. Noticing Eight descend into the City's underground sewers, Natoe follows. Much to his surprise, he encounters the humanoid White Fox and battles him on several occasions. At the end of the sewers, he meets the mysterious "Man in White" and discovers Jodie and Eight are both agents of the city. Saving Eight from the Man in White, Natoe convinces him to join the team."Chapter 4: The Man in White"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

The Samurai arrive at the village. Leaving the city, the encourage of Natoe, Eight and Rojie make their way to the village to rendezvous with the rest of the team. Along the way Natoe encounters a team of agents from the city, as well as the enigmatic Zwei.

Reaching the village, Kanbei and the samurai become suspicious of the villagers withdrawn behavior. Natoe decides to investigate, finding out in the process Hinata's true origins and the villagers deceitful motives. Afterwards, the team come to the conclusion that Humanoids attack on the village will be occurring soon. Natoe leaves the village in an attempt to find one last samurai to help in the ensuing battle."Chapter 5: Struggle in the Wilderness"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')"Chapter 6: Justice for Oneself"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

Natoe arrives in the wilderness to find an angry Zex and the humanoid Fen waiting for him. Zex's massive strength causes the ground to collapse, and Natoe finds himself in an underground city called the "Town of Warriors". Here he encounters Ein, a humanoid able to defeat his opponents using magic. He saves the female humanoid Cue in the process, offering to help her find her lost memories in return for her assistance. Afterwards he finds Jodie who apologies for having deceived Natoe, she then tells him to find "the traitor" and runs off. Sortly after he is reunited with Eight who, being the traitor of the city, has had his eyes cut out. Eight returns to the village with Natoe, confident he can still fight to protect the child."Chapter 7: To Live and let die"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

Deciding to take the offensive, the team of Natoe, Cue and Totsuma leave the village to infiltrate the humanoid Drei's Fort, where he has been constructing new humanoid experiments using captured test subjects. Natoe also discovers the immense newly upgraded "Zex Beast" creature and destroys it. However, Totsuma is caught in a trap and killed when the fortress collapses."Chapter 8: Searching for Sin without malice"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

Returning to the village, the samurai proceed to go on the defensive and protect the city from the massive Humanoid attack. During this attack, Eight sacrifices himself by blowing up one of the entrances to the village. After the ensuing battle of thousands, Natoe works his way to a fight with Zwei, defeating her and her three warriors before she retreats."Chapter 9: Victory born from Death"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

The village safe for the time being, however, the "Man In White" informs them that the city no longer need the sacred child and that Jodie has been kidnapped by the humanoids. Natoe and Cue team up to face the last of Humanoids at a facility called the "Library of Avalon". As they walk through the Library, they encounter several horrific creatures called "Guardians", along with Cue beginning to regain her lost memories. She is eventually kidnapped by Ein however, and Natoe fights through several Humanoids, including the "Ultimate Zex" incarnation and the immortal Fen. After defeating them, Natoe finally confronts the powerful and mysterious being known as Ein, who battles Natoe in his original humanoid form, then absorbs Cue to become the powerful god-like being called ''Almana''. Finding its only weak spot to be its angelic like wings, Natoe destroys them, then is able to attack its vulnerable body.

Now having rescued Jodie, Natoe returns to village, but is confronted by the humanoid Zwei, in her last attempt to gain the power of the sacred jewel and the child. Natoe tries to fight Zwei but on a bridge and Jodie is knocked over the edge. Natoe grabs her in an attempt to pull her up but he is stabbed in back by Zwei. He succeeds in stabbing and killing Zwei, but the bridge collapses and he and Jodie fall to their death, leaving only two samurai left. After the aftermath, Kanbei quotes the original movie pertaining to their situation: "So again we are defeated. The farmers have won. Not us." "Final Chapter: What makes us human"(''Seven Samurai 20XX'')

Steeple of Light

The interior of the Steeple of Light. The Steeple of Light is a tower located in the middle of the city in the game's setting. It houses various clones of the Sacred child along with the current girl herself who prays with the sacred jewel, and provides power to the surrounding city and areas. When the child and jewel are kidnapped, the tower loses its power source and sends the balance of species in to a war over her power.

After years of fighting that took millions of casualties, Earth is recovering from revolts in the 22nd century. In 2191, New Earth has a Master Computer that holds a secret database of the colony-planet's functioning. In wrong hands, the database could prove fatal to the whole planet. One day, aliens attack the Master Computer, making the Master control program malfunction. Nova, a lord of the ancient Power Blade is summoned to take care of the situation. The Power Blade is a glowing energy boomerang that Nova uses to defend himself.

In order to access the Master Computer's Control Center, Nova first has to obtain tape units from the six sectors surrounding the Master Computer. Each sector is heavily guarded by aliens, and Nova has to locate and contact an agent first to receive an ID card used to access the security room located at the same sector. After defeating the security room guards, Nova can obtain the sector's tape unit and use it to disarm the sector. After the six sectors have been disarmed, Nova must fight his way through the Control Center, destroy the Master Computer and restore order to the society.

In 1995, four women and childhood friends reunite in their hometown of Shelby, Indiana. They include sci-fi author Samantha Albertson, glitzy actress Tina "Teeny" Tercell, dry-humored gynecologist Dr. Roberta Martin, and content homemaker Chrissy DeWitt, who is heavily pregnant and expecting to give birth to her first child any day.

The story flashes back to 1970 as Samantha recounts the memorable summer shared by them as young adolescents. Twelve-year-old Samantha seeks to earn enough money to purchase a tree house to place in Chrissy's backyard in their affluent suburban neighborhood, the Gaslight Addition.

Each of the four girls is going through her own individual struggles. Samantha’s parents are in the midst of a divorce, Teeny is in pursuit of stardom and is boy-crazy, tomboy Roberta experiences embarrassment due to her developing breasts, and Chrissy is naive about sex and life in general due to her mother's overprotectiveness.

Motivated by Samantha's interest in the occult, the girls regularly sneak out at night to hold seances in the cemetery. During one, a cracked tombstone convinces them they have resurrected the spirit of a young boy identified only as Dear Johnny, who died in 1945. This sets the girls on a quest to find out what happened to him.

At a library in a nearby town, Roberta discovers an article about her mother’s death due to a car accident: she was hit head on, trapped in her car for an hour, and then later died of massive head trauma and internal bleeding—facts previously unknown to her. Samantha finds an obituary that briefly mentions Johnny and his mother tragically dying, but many of the pages are missing, leaving their cause of their deaths a mystery.

Meanwhile, the girls get into all sorts of other adventures, including an ongoing prank war with a group of neighborhood boys called the Wormer brothers and a fight at a softball game after a local boy insults Roberta. Roberta has her first kiss with Scott Wormer and makes him swear not to tell anyone.

One night after some tension prompted by her mother dating someone new, Samantha sneaks out of her home. She and Teeny hang out in the tree house display at the store, where Samantha confides her parents are getting a divorce. Teeny comforts her and breaks her favorite necklace in two, giving one half to Samantha as a "best friends for life" bracelet.

A thunderstorm breaks out as the girls head home, and Samantha accidentally drops her bracelet in a storm drain. She nearly drowns trying to retrieve it, but is rescued by Crazy Pete, a local old man who only comes out at night to ride his bike. This causes the girls to change their impression of Crazy Pete, who admits he only goes out at night because he prefers not to be around people.

Later, at Samantha’s grandmother’s, as she refuses to tell them what happened to Johnny, they sneak into the attic. They discover old newspapers that reveal Jonathan Sims and his mother, Beverly Anne, were shot and killed when they interrupted a burglary; father and husband, Peter, came home to find their bodies.

Roberta becomes upset and angry that two innocent people were killed and that her mother died violently, contrary to what she was told. Samantha tells them her parents are divorcing, and the girls make a pact to always be there for one another.

They go to the cemetery to perform one last seance to put Dear Johnny's soul to rest. His tombstone suddenly rises surrounded by bright light and a figure appears from behind. It turns out to just be the groundskeeper, who chastises the girls for "playing" in the cemetery and explains the damaged tombstone is being replaced because he was the one who cracked it.

While leaving, Samantha notices Crazy Pete going to the tombstone. Realizing he is Peter, she comforts him, while he advises her not to dwell on things. Some time after, the tree house is finally bought, and Samantha narrates, "The treehouse was supposed to bring us more independence. But what the summer actually brought was independence from each other."

The film returns to 1995, where Chrissy goes into labor and gives birth to a baby girl. Later, in their old tree house, Roberta reveals that Crazy Pete died the previous year and Samantha confesses Pete was Dear Johnny's father. The friends reaffirm their pact and vow to remain close.

Prologue

In the small town of Dexter, Maine, a delivery truck pulls up to a nearby newsstand. A young boy named Billy (Domineck John) eagerly follows the truck on his bike. The truck's back shutter opens to reveal a sinister delivery man (performed by Tom Savini, voiced by Joe Silver) who drops a package onto the sidewalk. As the film transitions to animation, the package is opened by a pair of miniature winged demons, revealing its contents to be copies of the latest issue of ''Creepshow'' (with the comic having the same cover as the comic in the final scene of the previous film), much to Billy's delight. The delivery man reveals his identity as the Creep and vanishes. As Billy picks up an issue and begins to read it, the film changes location to a sinister castle, where the Creep welcomes the audience. After feeding a hunk of meat to a monstrous lizard, the Creep proceeds to tell the first story.

Old Chief Wood'nhead

Ray and Martha Spruce (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour) are a kindly elderly couple who live in the small town of Dead River, Arizona. They own and operate the town's general store, whose décor includes "Old Chief Wood'nhead" (Dan Kamin), a cigar store Indian who stands on the front porch. Seeing that their old, run-down town is dying, Martha encourages Ray to shut down the store, take what savings they have left, and use their remaining years to enjoy retirement, but Ray is hesitant to do so because of the memories the store has given him, as well as his desire to help the local people in need. The Spruces are visited by Benjamin Whitemoon (Frank Salsedo), the elder of a local Native American tribe. Whitemoon gives them a bag of turquoise jewels, his tribe's sacred treasures, as collateral for the debt his people have incurred. Despite initially refusing to accept them, Ray vows to guard the jewels with his life.

Whitemoon bids them and Old Chief Wood'nhead (who nods in response, briefly startling him) farewell and returns home. After Whitemoon leaves, the Spruces are subject to a vicious robbery led by Benjamin's estranged delinquent nephew Sam Whitemoon (Holt McCallany), armed with a shotgun and accompanied by his friends, the wealthy Andy "Rich Boy" Cavanaugh and the gluttonous Vince "Fatso" Gribbens. After ransacking the store and emptying both the register and Martha's purse for what little money they have, Sam reveals that he knows his uncle gave Ray the jewels, demands that he hand them over while holding Martha at gunpoint. In the struggle, Sam's gun goes off and fires at Martha, killing her. No longer holding back, Sam shoots and kills Ray as well before grabbing the jewels. In celebration, Sam shoots out the store's windows and fires a round at Old Chief Wood'nhead, knocking over the can of paint Ray had been using to touch up the Chief's war paint. The three thugs drive away and begin preparations to run off to Hollywood, where Sam expects to become a movie star in part due to his long, dark hair. After they leave, Old Chief Wood'nhead comes to life, uses the spilled paint to finish his war paint, and lets out a howling battle cry before embarking on a vicious warpath to kill the thugs and avenge the Spruces.

Old Chief Wood'nhead first goes after Vince, killing him by puncturing his chest and skull with arrows. Old Chief Wood'nhead then goes after Andy, hacking apart his car with a tomahawk before hacking him to death with it. Finally, Old Chief Wood'nhead corners Sam in his house. Sam is unable to fight back, the shells from his shotgun having no effect on his wooden assailant. Sam attempts to lock himself in his bathroom and escape through a window, but Old Chief Wood'nhead manages to break through the wall. Grabbing Sam by his hair, Old Chief Wood'nhead pulls him through the wall and uses a hunting knife to scalp him offscreen.

The next morning, Benjamin Whitemoon wakes up to find the bag containing the jewelry on his bed. He visits the Spruce's ruined general store to find Old Chief Wood'nhead back on the porch, fresh war paint adorning his face, holding both his nephew's bloody scalp and a bloodstained knife. Now aware of what has happened to the Spruces and what Old Chief Wood'nhead has done to the killers, Benjamin wishes the old warrior a peaceful afterlife and drives away.

Interlude 1

As the film returns to animation, Billy is seen at the town post office, still reading the comic book. He receives a package from the clerk, Mr. Haig, that supposedly contains a product advertised in his copy of the ''Creepshow'' magazine. Incensed by the skeptical Haig's dismissal of paying $9.99 for "a toy ordered out of a funny paper," Billy mentions that the package is the bulb for a meat-eating Venus flytrap. Mr. Haig still doubts the contents of the package, but Billy sets his money on the counter and sets off for home with his package. The Creep appears behind from the post office counter, surprised to find the audience still watching, and he proceeds to tell the next story.

The Raft

In mid-October, Deke (Paul Satterfield), Laverne (Jeremy Green), Randy (Daniel Beer), and Rachel (Page Hannah), four students of Horlicks University (the university featured in the first film) drive out to Cascade Beach, a desolate lake far from civilization, for some fun. Arriving at the lake, the quartet discover a wooden raft left out in the middle of the water, thinking that the lake's caretakers forgot to bring it in. While swimming to the raft, Randy witnesses a duck struggling against and being pulled under the water by an unseen force. Meeting Deke on the wooden raft, he urges the girls to swim to the raft faster. Once all four students are on the raft, they discover what Randy was so nervous about: a large, black, blob-like creature resembling an oil slick floating on the surface of the water. As Rachel leans over the raft to try and touch the creature, it grabs Rachel, pulls her into the lake, and digests her. Panicking and mourning the loss of Rachel, the three remaining students remember that it's currently the off-season, meaning that there is no caretaker to rescue them anytime soon.

As time passes, the trio watch the creature's every move to anticipate what to do next. Deke plans to make a break for it and swim to shore so he can bring back help. Before he can follow through on his choice, the blob seeps through the raft's cracks and grabs Deke by the foot. Despite Randy and Laverne trying their hardest to save him, the blob manages to pull Deke through the raft, killing him. Noting that the creature is still hungry, Randy and Laverne manage to evade the creature by standing on the raft's boards, keeping the creature from grabbing them as it tries reach from under the raft. When night falls, Randy and Laverne are afraid to fall asleep in fear that the creature will attack. The two of them take turns watching for the creature, then ultimately fall asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning, Randy discovers that he and Laverne are still alive. Neglecting to keep an eye on the creature, Randy lays Laverne on the raft and begins molesting her, kissing and caressing her sleeping body. Laverne then awakens, screaming in agony, and revealing that the creature has once again seeped through the cracks and has covered the right half of her face, much to Randy's horror. As the blob pulls her off the raft and consumes her, Randy jumps off the raft and swims to shore. He ultimately makes it, barely escaping the creature and yelling at the top of his lungs, "I beat you!" Unfortunately, the creature rears up from the water like a wave and engulfs Randy.

The blob then returns to the water, leaving no evidence of the four students having ever visited the lake other than their discarded clothes and still-running car. Unbeknown to the students, next to their car was a sign barely visible behind some thick vegetation. The sign reads "No swimming".

Interlude 2

As the film returns to animation, Billy is seen making his way back home from the post office, still reading the ''Creepshow'' comic. He is then ambushed by a gang of neighborhood bullies, who taunt him. The gang's leader, a bulky kid named Rhino, takes Billy's package from him and smashes it. As the bullies continue to mock Billy, Rhino opens the package, finds the Venus Flytrap bulb, and drops it on the ground. Billy threatens him to give it back, but he ends up crushing it with his foot. In retaliation, Billy kicks Rhino in the groin and flees as an angered Rhino orders his underlings to pursue him. As Billy escapes, The Creep appears from behind a tree, informing the audience that Billy knows his way around town, so the bullies won't catch him in a hurry. With that, the Creep goes on to tell the last story.

The Hitch-hiker

Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles), an adulterous businesswoman, wakes up and gets out of bed after sleeping with her gigolo lover. Upon discovering that there was a power outage the night before, Annie realizes that she only has 15 minutes before her wealthy attorney husband George arrives home. Desperate to beat George there to avoid suspicion and a potential divorce, Annie hops into her car and races for her house, several miles away. A spilled ember from the cigarette she was smoking causes Annie to lose control of her car at a slippery corner, where she accidentally runs down a Dover-bound hitchhiker (Tom Wright). Seeing that no one witnessed the incident, Annie takes off and doesn't look back. Shortly after she leaves however, the area of the incident is crowded with witnesses, including a truck driver (Stephen King), a pair of passersby, and George, who reports the hit-and-run to the police.

Miles away from the scene, Annie nervously thinks about what she has done and rationalizes the consequences of her murderous act. While she does briefly consider turning herself in, Annie ultimately concludes that no one has anything on her. Before she can continue her drive however, she spots the hitchhiker she killed approaching her car through the rearview mirror. When she glances again, the hitchhiker is gone, making her believe that the guilt is making her see things. The hitchhiker suddenly appears outside her window and utters "Thanks for the ride, lady!"; a line he repeats throughout the story. A terrified Annie speeds away, but the hitchhiker's hand reaches through the sunroof and grabs her. She drives off the road and through the woods, where she knocks the hitchhiker off the roof of her car with a low hanging branch.

Nervous, Annie reaches through the glove compartment for a revolver, which she proceeds to load. The undead hitchhiker appears once again, opening the door to the passenger seat. Annie shoots him multiple times, but fails to kill him. She is then able to kick him out of the car and run him over repeatedly. As Annie hysterically rants to herself, the hitchhiker climbs onto the hood of the car and pulls up his "DOVER" sign, which now reads "YOU KILLED ME". Annie once again loses control of the car and drives off the road. She and the hitchhiker careen down a hill and into a tree. Annie proceeds to repeatedly slam the hitchhiker into the same tree, knocking herself out in the process.

A while later, Annie awakens from her accident. Not seeing the hitchhiker anywhere, Annie believes the experience was a concussion-induced nightmare. Believing that the accident will give her a valid explanation as to why she is late to George, Annie gets back on the road and drives home, actually succeeding in getting there before him. As she begins to step out of her car, the hitchhiker, gruesomely mangled from the trip and still uttering "Thanks for the ride, lady!", crawls out from under the vehicle and attacks her. While Annie vainly attempts to fight him off, the garage door swings shut, filling the interior with smoke.

Sometime later, George finally arrives home to find Annie in her still-running car, dead from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. The hitchhiker's bloodied "DOVER" sign sits in her lap.

Epilogue

As the film returns to animation, The Creep is seen inside the delivery truck from the beginning of the film. He prepares to drive away and bids the audience farewell, but he then spots Billy, still being chased by the bullies. Billy leads his pursuers into a vacant lot swarming with out-of-control plant growth. As he rides into what seems to be a dead-end, Rhino and his gang move in to pummel Billy, only to learn that the bulb they smashed was not the first one Billy had ordered. A quintet of Giant Venus Flytraps emerge from the surrounding weeds and devour the thugs one by one, saving Rhino for last and spitting out his boot. Billy opens his copy of ''Creepshow'' to display the advertisement for the Giant Venus Flytraps he ordered, reaffirming the audience that they eat meat.

As the film returns to live-action, the spectacle is witnessed by the Creep, who cackles in glee and drives off to deliver the latest issue of ''Creepshow'' to another town as the credits roll.

In a post-credits scene, the following text appears:

Cristina is Mariano's daughter, a widower. She attends a Catholic school and creates a world of her own ("mundo de juguete") in the school garden. At school she meets "Nana Tomasina", an old woman who lives behind the boarding school where Cristina attends. She takes the lonely girl in and advises her. Cristina succeeds in making her father marry Rosario who was a novice at the convent/boarding school so that she can have a new mother.

Impassive hitman Jef Costello lives in a single-room Paris apartment whose spartan furnishings include a small bird in a cage. Costello's methodical modus operandi involves creating airtight alibis, including ones provided by his lover, Jane. After carrying out a contract killing on a nightclub owner, Jef is seen leaving the scene by the club's piano player Valérie and several witnesses, but their testimonies are contradictory. After rounding up numerous suspects, including Jef, the police superintendent firmly believes Costello is the culprit.

Costello loses a police tail and goes to collect his fee from an intermediary sent by his employers. When the man shoots and wounds Costello, Jef realizes that the police investigation has compromised him with his employers. After treating his wound, Costello returns to the nightclub and meets Valérie, who takes him to her home. Though he is grateful, he wonders why she lied to the police when she clearly saw him after the murder. Meanwhile, police officers bug his room, agitating the bird in its cage. Upon returning, Costello notices some loose feathers scattered around the cage and the bird acting strangely. Suspecting an intrusion, he searches his room, finds the bug and deactivates it.

The police search Jane's apartment and offer her a deal: withdraw her dubious alibi for Costello and they will leave her alone. She rejects the offer. Back in his apartment, Costello is ambushed by the intermediary, who pays him off and offers him another contract. Costello overpowers him and forces him to disclose the identity of his boss, Olivier Rey.

Several undercover officers attempt to tail Costello in the Métro but he loses them. He visits Jane and assures her that everything will work out, then drives to Rey's home, which turns out to be where Valérie also lives. Costello kills Rey and returns to the nightclub, this time making no attempt to conceal his presence. He checks his hat but leaves his hat-check ticket on the counter and puts on white gloves, which he wears during his kills, in full view of everyone. He approaches the stage where Valérie plays piano. She quietly advises him to leave but he pulls out his gun and aims it at her. As she asks Costello why he is doing this, he responds that he is being paid for the job. Three policemen reveal themselves and shoot Costello dead. When the superintendent inspects Costello's gun, he finds it empty.

The married couple Catalina Creel (María Rubio) and Carlos Larios (Raúl Meraz) own the gigantic pharmaceutical consortium called Lar-Creel. Catalina made everyone believe that José Carlos (Gonzalo Vega), her eldest son, who is her stepson, had gouged out her right eye with a spinning top while playing as a child. This was a lie, and Catalina never lost her eye. She lied so that Carlos would take preference for Alejandro (Alejandro Camacho), the only son of his marriage to Catalina Creel; they also managed to destroy José Carlos' self-esteem.

To protect her secret, Catalina always wears a patch covering her right eye, making everyone believe that they put an immobile glass eye covered with gauze and on top of it the patch, which matches her clothing color. But one day, Carlos discovered Catalina without the patch and decides to change his will and divorce her, but he dies poisoned by his wife. Reynaldo Gutiérrez (Carlos Cámara), an important Lar-Creel official, discovers that Catalina murdered her boss, but she threatens to blame him for the crime and he is forced to remain silent and is therefore promoted to vice president of Lar-Creel . The will specifies that the family businesses would only pass to their children, Alejandro and José Carlos, if they in turn beget children. In this way, the perpetuity of the caste was sought.

José Carlos is still single, since he is an inveterate gambler and Catalina has been in charge of destroying his love relationships, especially one already formalized between him and Paulina (Edna Bolkan), despite the fact that she had relationships with other men. And Alejandro is married to Vilma (Rebecca Jones), who cannot have children. Therefore, Alejandro decides to maliciously seduce a working woman, Leonora Navarro (Diana Bracho), who had witnessed the death of Carlos Larios and notified Alejandro; His goal is to get her pregnant and take the child from her, to present him as his and his wife's and thus be able to access the inheritance. In this way, Alejandro convinces Vilma to fake a pregnancy, making her believe that they are going to secretly adopt a child. Shortly after, Vilma discovers that Alejandro has already got Leonora pregnant, but he makes her believe that Leonora is willing to sell her son.

Alejandro installs Leonora and her godmother, Doña Esperanza (Carmen Montejo), in a penthouse owned by the Larios family, where he even stages a false marriage. In addition, he hires a doctor for Leonora's care, Dr. Frank Syndel (Ramón Menéndez) (a disreputable gynecologist who previously tried to do business with Lar-Creel), and a nurse named Rosalía (Lilia Aragón); They are both unscrupulous people whose job it is to take care of Leonora during her pregnancy.

Catalina, who was initially unaware of this plan, believes that her son Alejandro has a lover. However, he soon discovers Vilma's sterility when visiting one of the many doctors consulted before by Vilma and Alejandro, for which Alejandro is forced to reveal his entire plan to her. Because this plan is on more than one occasion about to be discovered by involving many people, Catalina decides to take charge of the matter, with a much greater coldness and calculation than Alejandro has. Doña Esperanza, Leonora's godmother, soon finds out the truth about Alejandro, but suffers a stroke that leaves her prostrate in a vegetative state.

As her due date approaches, Leonora is transferred to a fake maternity clinic owned by Dr. Syndel and Rosalía in San Miguel de Allende. Doña Esperanza, for her part, is abandoned in a nursing home, unable to tell the truth due to her condition. Vilma, who continues to fake her pregnancy, is also admitted to the same clinic as Leonora, in order to fake her delivery. Against everything planned, both women meet and Vilma realizes that Leonora is a woman in love who lives deceived.

When the child is born, he is immediately handed over to Vilma, who was already on the verge of giving up and now being at all times against Alejandro's plan. What she ignores is that Catalina has ordered Syndel to assassinate Leonora. However, Leonora sees Rosalía approaching through the window with a revolver and manages to remove it by hitting her on the head before escaping. Leonora manages to arrive in Mexico helped by the married couple Julio (Roberto Vander) and Elena Cifuentes (Margarita Isabel), and with her last strength she arrived at the house of her friend, Dr. Terán (Miguel Gómez Checa), where everyone celebrated Christmas Eve.

Around the same time, Mario Escudero (Jorge Fegan), the family jeweler, discovers Catalina in New York without her typical patch and with a completely healthy eye. Previously Escudero had commissioned the late Carlos Larios a jewel in the form of a brooch with a cheap glass eye in the center for Catalina, as a hint for her deception. The man tries to reveal the truth to José Carlos and Alejandro being blackmailed by Catalina who vows to retaliate. Escudero calls José Carlos in a parking lot to reveal the whole truth to him, so that he can shed his guilt. But this call is intercepted by Catalina, who goes before José Carlos to the appointment, killing Escudero in cold blood. José Carlos is accused of said crime and arrested, taking him almost a year to solve his problems with the law.

Catalina offers Dr. Terán money for his silence, and reveals to him the place where he can find Doña Esperanza. Thus, Dr. Terán can ensure that the elderly woman receives adequate treatment. He is also forced to commit Leonora to a psychiatric clinic, since for all that happened he suffers a nervous breakdown.

A year later, Leonora, now restored, decides to take revenge on Catalina and Alejandro, and recover her son, whom they have named Edgar. Leonora tries to sabotage a party in Lar-Creel by being bribed by Alejandro and Vilma in exchange for her silence. Doña Esperanza's health has also improved remarkably and she soon leaves the wheelchair when confronting Vilma, who is stunned by the achievements that Alejandro and Catalina have been capable of. Leonora begins to study all the steps of the Larios-Creel family. In this way, he manages to seduce José Carlos, who has already been released from prison, still believing him a murderer. Shortly after meeting, Leonora and José Carlos get married. The young woman reappears surprisingly before "the wolves", as she calls them now, as the wife of José Carlos, who still does not know anything about what happened.

At the same time, Reynaldo Gutiérrez, who knows that Catalina murdered Escudero and also poisoned her husband, is willing to reveal the whole truth to the police after being accused by Catalina of her husband's death -after Alejandro inquired about the subject- and the alliance between Escudero and Gutiérrez. But Catalina manages to get there before the police and assassinates Gutiérrez by injecting him with poison to make the crime look like suicide, something that although the police doubt. While fleeing the crime scene, Catalina meets Alejandro, who discovers her disguised in the raincoat and blonde wig.

On the other hand, Bertha (Rosa María Bianchi), Catalina's personal secretary, who knows that her boss is the murderer of Escudero and Gutiérrez (whom she tries to vainly warn of Catalina's intentions), discovers in the Larios mansion Catalina in the disguise in which she has committed the murders. As a result, Catalina reveals the whole truth to Bertha, including the secret of her eye. Bertha, who since then has received various favors from Catalina, vows to remain silent, mainly out of fear of the woman whom she now identifies as a psychopath.

Little by little, Leonora discovers that she loves José Carlos and that he is a noble person, totally oblivious to the evils that occur around him. Leonora, once installed in the Larios house, convinces José Carlos to take an active part in the family's business, and begins to investigate Catalina and Alejandro as much as possible. Vilma dislikes Leonora, because she takes advantage of every possible moment to be in the company of who her son really is.

Having found out where her grandmother is, Bertha decides to travel to Dr. Syndel's clinic and take her to safety. But Syndel is attracted to Bertha, to the jealousy of Rosalía. On Catalina's orders, Rosalía starts a fire in the clinic in order to kill Bertha, even more so after observing that her husband had abused her. An unknown number of people die in the fire, including Bertha's grandmother and Dr. Syndel himself. It is not long before Leonora begins to track down the deaths of Escudero and Gutiérrez. The young woman finds Bertha, who managed to escape the fire badly injured, and she reveals everything she knows about Catalina, to the horror of Leonora and Doña Esperanza. For her part, Catalina begins to manipulate her children so that Leonora is left in uncomfortable situations and show her that the war continues.

Leonora, now aware of Catalina's secret, convinces Elvia (Josefina Echánove) (the housekeeper of the Larios mansion) to allow her to enter Catalina's room to find the pin with the glass eye. The young woman is attacked by Catalina, who tries to assassinate her, so Leonora warns her that if something happens to her, Bertha will appear. Rosalía is taken to live by Catalina at the Larios mansion, but the police soon discover that it was the nurse who set the clinic on fire, so Catalina plans Rosalía's escape by dressing her in the costume of a murderer and handing her a weapon. Rosalía ends up being killed in Buenavista Station by the police when she resists being captured. Catalina, when questioned by Commander Luna (Wally Barrón), assures that it was Rosalía who murdered Escudero and Gutiérrez.

Given this, the police officers begin to suspect Catalina Creel as responsible for the murders, but they lack hard evidence to bring her to justice. As the agents get closer to the truth, Catalina has to resort to numerous tricks to hide clues that could prove her guilt. To have accomplices, although she justifies it as "having allies", Catalina tells the truth to Alejandro and Vilma, who are horrified by the truth behind the patch. On one occasion, Catalina celebrates her birthday and decides to have a costume party, to which Leonora arrives disguised with the clothes Catalina used for her murders. This unleashes the anger of Catalina, who orders Alejandro to take her to her room. Leonora confesses to Alejandro, at that moment, that Catalina also murdered Carlos Larios. When Alejandro questions this with Catalina, she confirms it, so Alejandro begins to move away from his mother and even sends little Edgar to his in-laws.

Soon after, Catalina discovers Bertha's whereabouts, so she decides to assassinate her. However Bertha is taken by the panic of her memories and the fear of "the wolves", and decides to escape. Leonora is forced to tell José Carlos the truth, because the wolves have taken little Edgar to the United States. Their love reaches a peak of tension when the truth is discovered, and José Carlos ends up beating Alejandro. José Carlos's thirst for truth, to whom everyone always sends hints, is quenched with the false testimonies of Vilma, Alejandro and Catalina who claim that Leonora had sold the baby to them. However, José Carlos consults Leonora by not believing those lies of his wife. Leonora, offended by José Carlos for doubting her, decides to leave the Larios house with a vengeance that she was willing to end. Shortly after, Leonora discovers that she is expecting a child from José Carlos. Vilma, who has also had some illnesses, also discovers that she is pregnant. Leonora informs Vilma's parents of what Alejandro did to her and they, after confirming the truth, demand that their daughter return the child.

Bertha reappears surprisingly, disguised as a French woman in charge of a travel agency serving Lar-Creel under the name "Michelle Albán". Now she has an ally named Lucero (Magda Karina), who pitied Bertha for the constant tears she shed for her grandmother. Bertha called herself another woman and says she learned about the "queen of the pack" when she dressed up as Michelle. Mauricio (Luis Rivera), a loyal assistant to Alejandro Larios and an accomplice in many crimes of that family, arrives at the agency asking for a trip (financed by Catalina in exchange for her silence) and feels attracted to Lucero. Then Bertha's mind devises a trap, which consists of Lucero making him fall in love and getting useful information out of him. Mauricio and Lucero start a relationship in which both discover several compromising affairs of Catalina, previously Mauricio had been imprisoned for sending (under Alejandro's orders and paying favors) medicines to Syndel's clinic, and upon returning to freedom he is threatened by both Catalina as for Alejandro since he knows the deal between the late Dr. Syndel and Alejandro.

Catalina, informed by Mauricio who comments on the resemblance between Bertha and the French woman, suspects that Michelle Albán and Bertha are the same person and decides to meet them to eliminate her, Mauricio is rewarded with a vacation trip in exchange for his silence before the police, who also investigates it. Catalina discovers Lucero in that place and decides to assassinate her by strangling her. Bertha discovers the crime and is chased by Catalina, who suffers a spectacular crash. Catalina is taken to a clinic and the doctor reveals to José Carlos that Catalina has both eyes in perfect condition. José Carlos decides to confront Catalina by confronting her with each of her crimes during a dinner at the Larios mansion, where only the two of them meet; Furthermore, he gives him a sample of the same poison that he used to murder his father and confesses that he already knows the truth that he never lost his eye.

With all these sudden changes, the tension grows in the environment of the Larios more and more to the point that Catalina loses control of everything and her bloody plans end up turning against herself. Vilma, who accidentally discovers that she actually has cancer in the womb, returns the baby to Leonora, regretting her actions and the cancer she has and even more for fear that Catalina would take it away, and asks her husband let them run away. Faced with this adverse scenario, Catalina decides to assassinate José Carlos, who had planned a trip in the family plane with Leonora and little Edgar, altering the fuel tank of the device. However, Vilma urgently needs to travel to the United States to treat her cancer, which prompts Alejandro to ask José Carlos for the plane at the last minute.

Inspector Suárez (Humberto Elizondo) goes after Catalina to arrest her after obtaining the testimonies of Mauricio and Bertha. However, Catalina murders the inspector while walking near the pool: she fakes a sprained ankle to first distract him and then throw him into the water next to a running lawnmower, dying of electrocution. The police surround the Larios mansion, while Comandante Luna and Licenciado Curiel (the Larios' lawyer) observe the inspector's corpse, while Catalina receives a call from Captain Gudini from the airport, and reports that the plane exploded in the air shortly after takeoff and your son has died. Happy, the woman believes she has completed her plan and eliminated her stepson. But upon learning that it was her own son and wife who she murdered, she puts the same poison with which she killed her husband in an orange juice, dresses in her killer outfit, takes off her eyepatch, drinks the juice, and go dead.

Five years later, Braulio, Leonora's first-born, is playing together with his brother José Carlos Jr., in the room in which Catalina committed suicide and which her parents forbid them to enter. The child puts on his eye the one that was his patch and says the memorable words: "I am not Braulio, I am little Edgar" which meant the possibility of a sequel that did not happen.

The film showcases three 14-year-old girls: Dawn (Miriam McDonald), Becca (Megan Park) and Hannah (Alexis Dziena). Hannah soon finds herself on the receiving end of peer pressure from her friends to engage in oral sex with Nick Hartman, a nice boy whom Hannah likes. She believes that she has to behave in a particular fashion in order to fit in with her more sexually-active peers.

As Hannah becomes more sexually "advanced", she does not reveal her sexual encounters with Nick to her mother, who is concerned about Hannah. Hannah regards her mother's concern as being intrusive, knowing she would be shocked if she knew. When Hannah's best friend Dawn gets syphilis, the school nurses begin widespread testing. It soon becomes evident that the school is experiencing an epidemic.

Although Nick is identified as the main spreader of the disease, he does not appreciate the serious nature of the issue and refuses to be tested, mocking those who undergo testing. Dawn reluctantly gets tested and discovers that she has contracted the disease. She realizes the consequences of her behavior and encourages her friends to get tested as well. Hannah notices a sore in her mouth one morning and decides to see the nurse, who tells Hannah that she is also infected. Thus, Hannah is forced to deal with the consequences of her actions.

When Hannah's mother finds out about the syphilis spread, she launches an effort to alert parents about their children's dangerous behavior. Although she is certain that other parents will share her level of concern in helping their children, she is shocked by some of the parents' indifferent attitudes to their children's actions.

Meanwhile, Becca is outraged when her religious parents (who do not know about her sexual history) decide to send her to boarding school, and Hannah is alienated at school because of her mother. She leaves her house one night and goes to her friend Tommy's house. They both realize they like each other and make out. Hannah wants to have sex, but Tommy refuses, explaining that he likes her but wishes to wait, as they are too young. Hannah becomes even more emotionally distraught, thinking he is not interested because she has been called a 'slut' and runs off. When Hannah's parents return home and see that she is gone, her mother goes off to find her. Walking around by herself in the street, Hannah calls Dawn and Becca. Dawn is grounded and is not allowed to speak with Hannah, and Becca is making out in a car with two boys and does not hear her phone.

Hannah goes to a party, where many of the kids from her school are present, looking for Becca. Brad, the party's host, directs Hannah to the basement, and when she realizes that Becca is not there, he attempts to have sex with her. She refuses, but he tries to force her into it. Tommy barges into the room, takes a picture of Brad and threatens to send it to 9-1-1. Brad leaves Hannah and ends the party.

Tommy takes Hannah back to his house and calls her parents. They come to fetch her, relieved to see she is alright. Hannah apologizes to them and her mother promises that things will be better from now on. The end of the film shows Becca has snuck back into her room and begins to cry. Dawn is playing Scrabble with her mother as her sister, Tess, who is not playing, sneaks off to Dawn's room. In there, she picks up one of Dawn's "sexy" shirts, takes off her glasses and models in front of the mirror, implying she may try to be 'like Dawn'.

At the end of the film, Alexis Dziena appears to give a public service announcement urging teens to wait to have sex because of both physical and emotional consequences.

The story begins with a series of individuals from different time periods encountering motionless, hovering spheres—and each other—in the region of the Northwest Frontier. Two early hominins, a mother and daughter, are the first. They lack a language, but are referred to in the narration as "Seeker" and "Grasper". Just after encountering a sphere, they are captured by strange creatures in red, later revealed to be British Redcoats.

In the year 2037, a UN peacekeeper helicopter is badly damaged by an R.P.G. It crashes near Jamrud Fort, which is defended by British soldiers and sepoys from 1885—including the same redcoats who captured Seeker and Grasper, which the British call "man-apes". Also present at the fort are the factor Cecil de Morgan, and two journalist observers, the American Josh White and the Anglo-Indian "Ruddy"—a young and as-yet unknown Rudyard Kipling.

The helicopter crew comprises an American pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Casey Othic; a British Indian observer, Lieutenant Bisesa Dutt; and Chief Warrant Officer Abdikadir Omar, an Afghan Pashtun with blue eyes and strawberry blond hair, which he claims is inherited from soldiers in the army of Alexander the Great. All three survive the helicopter crash, and they are taken prisoner by the British. Both sides soon realise that they are from different time periods, brought together by an event they name the "Discontinuity", and begin working together.

Abdikadir investigates one of the spheres, located near the fort, which the British call an "Eye". He determines that it possesses inexplicable properties; among other things, its circumference and volume are not related to its radius by a factor of pi, as in ordinary geometry, but by a factor of exactly 3. The 19th-century British, however, have become accustomed to the sphere, and use a camouflage net draped over it as a cage for the "man-apes".

Also beginning in 2037, a Soyuz capsule departs the International Space Station to return to Earth. Aboard are two Russians, Musa Ivanov and Kolya Krivalapov, and an American, Sable Jones. Sable is abrasive and ambitious, which Kolya believes has helped her succeed in her field, but she especially irritates Musa. The Soyuz loses contact with ground control, and takes up orbit rather than re-entering the atmosphere. They manage to establish radio contact with the "moderns" in Jamrud, and through the cosmonauts' observations, the characters learn that the Earth has become a patchwork conglomerate of terrain, and people, from different time periods spanning two million years ago up to the 21st century. Aside from Jamrud, and a site in North America that might be 19th-century Chicago, the cosmonauts' observations find no signs of industrial civilisation at all. They do, however, detect one other radio signal: a beacon of unknown origin located at the site of Babylon.

After weeks of orbiting, the cosmonauts decide to bring the Soyuz down in central Asia, where their observations have noted signs of extensive, but still pre-industrial, habitation. From there they hope to make their way to Jamrud. Before re-entry, Musa suggests that calling this patchwork world "Earth" is inappropriate, and proposes the name "Mir" instead; not for the "antique Russian space station", but for the Russian word ''мир'', meaning both "peace" and "world".

The Soyuz lands successfully, but upon exiting the craft, Musa is decapitated by a Mongol warrior. Kolya, remembering a few words of Mongolian, manages to convince the Mongols that they are "emissaries of Heaven", and Sable and Kolya are loaded onto a cart heading east. They have arrived in the Mongol Empire of the 13th century, during the reign of Genghis Khan, to whom the "emissaries" are brought.

At the Khan's court, Kolya lays plans to use the Mongol army to enter China and rebuild the trading posts and towns that were lost in the Discontinuity. Sable disagrees, and instead proposes to take the army to Babylon. She hopes to find the unexplained radio beacon, believing it connected to whatever inconceivable event caused the Discontinuity, and thus the centre of power in "Mir". When Sable saves the Khan's life by shooting dead a sabre-toothed cat with her hidden side arm, Genghis accepts her as truly an emissary of Heaven, takes her to his bed, and agrees to her plan to take Babylon.

Meanwhile, the British have encountered the army of Alexander the Great, on the march down the Indus after the revolt that ended Alexander's eastward expansion. Alexander is suffering from his injury in the Mallian Campaign, but recovers, and the British and Macedonian forces form an alliance. Their goal, too, is Babylon; Alexander wishes to return to the capital of his Persian empire, and the "moderns" wish to locate the radio beacon. Alexander's army arrives at Babylon before the Khan, and has time to explore it. A sphere at least three times larger than those previously seen is discovered in the Temple of Marduk, and is found to be the source of the radio signals.

Meanwhile, the Khan's army reaches and sacks 19th-century Bishkek, massacring almost the entire population. Seeing this, Kolya plots against the Khan and Sable. As they near Babylon, he uses the radio equipment from the Soyuz to contact Casey and warn him of the coming Mongols. Sable catches Kolya in the act, but since the Mongols refuse to spill the "royal blood" of an emissary of Heaven, they blind and deafen him and throw him, alive, into a boarded-over pit.

An embassy from Alexander to the Mongols is rebuffed; Alexander's general Ptolemy is beheaded, and the survivors return mutilated. The defence of Babylon is organised, with the moderns introducing the Macedonians to guns and grenades. The combined Macedonian–British force meets the Mongols before the gates of the city. The defence is gradually worn down by the Mongols, and the shock of modern arms is blunted by Sable having prepared the Mongol troops, just as the British had the Macedonians.

However, Kolya is still alive. Knowing more of the Mongols than Sable did, he had already guessed what their punishment of him would be: to bury him alive, beneath the yurt of the Khan himself. Having hidden a water supply and an improvised bomb on his person, he chooses his moment and detonates the bomb, killing the Khan.

When the signal of the Khan's death reaches the field, most of the Mongols withdraw in order to hold a ''kurultai''. However, a small force remains under Sable's command. They break through the weakened defenders and head straight for the Temple of Marduk and the massive sphere, dubbed the "Eye of Marduk". Bisesa confronts Sable in the Temple and incapacitates her, but Ruddy is fatally shot.

Alexander's lover Hephaestion died in the battle, but Alexander refuses the public mourning period. Sable is executed, as is Cecil de Morgan, who had sold secrets to the Mongols and told Sable where to find the Eye of Marduk. The Macedonians and British settle in Babylon and establish a home there.

Bisesa spends all of her time studying the Eye of Marduk, becoming convinced that ancient, intelligent beings are observing them through it, and that she has been able to not only sense their presence, but communicate with them. Neither her friends' concern, nor an expedition with Alexander around the Mediterranean, nor her romantic relationship with Josh, distract her for long. Meanwhile, the British have again used an Eye to support the cage holding Seeker and Grasper, but the Eye begins to compel the "man-apes" to act in unusual ways, as if performing experiments on them.

Bisesa believes that the beings behind the Eye have agreed to grant her request: to take her home, to Earth. The beings do indeed use the Eye to take her away from Mir, together with Josh, who insists on accompanying her. However, their first destination is a blasted wasteland, possibly the result of nuclear devastation, and Bisesa concludes that they are in the far future, perhaps millions of years from their own time. Another Eye appears and takes Bisesa—and only Bisesa—away again; before she vanishes, they grant her plea to send Josh back to Mir instead of leaving him alone in the waste.

As the story concludes, there is a chapter from the point of view of the ancient beings, the "Firstborn", explaining that they arose in the early days of the universe, on a planet orbiting a powerful but short-lived star. When their star died, they saw it as the beginning of the heat death of the universe. Wanting to stop anything that might hasten the end of the universe and thus the end of intelligent life, they set out to find other intelligent beings developing advanced technology, and to stop them before they can develop to the point of consuming "too much" energy.

On Mir, Seeker and Grasper have been released, but Grasper, changed by her time under the Eye, begins to imagine a future for her kind in this world, a future of successfully competing with the humans. Lastly, Bisesa arrives on Earth, in her home in London, the day after her helicopter flight. Her eight-year-old daughter Myra is there, and Bisesa promises to explain her sudden appearance and strange state, but then she sees an Eye floating over the city.

Spider-Man encounters The Lizard. Spider-Man begins the game imprisoned in a skyscraper which he must explore. He encounters characters such as Sandman, Hydro-Man, and Ringmaster. The player must solve puzzles and collect gems. He also encounters Madame Web and Lizard.

Joe Braxton (Richard Pryor) is a convict who violates his parole after a failed attempt to lift a bunch of televisions from a store in Philadelphia. After a dramatic attempt at reverse psychology with the judge (Bill Quinn), he is given a second chance at parole, and his parole-officer, Donald (Robert Christian), has him do something for him.

Donald is also involved with school teacher Vivian Perry (Cicely Tyson), whose school was just closed down by the city due to budget cuts. While most of the children have been relocated, eight special needs students have yet to be relocated. Vivian decides to take them to her aunt's farm in rural Washington. Donald is against it, and at first gets Joe to tell her the old bus she planned on using would not work. However, that blows up in his face, but Donald then decides to have Joe go ahead and drive the bus to Washington.

As Joe, Vivian, and the kids ride the bus, the past lives and ailments of the kids are told: * Harold (Jimmy Hughes) is blind, but so badly wants to drive a vehicle, and eventually does. * Anthony (Edwin Kinter) is a pyromaniac who accidentally burned his house down and killed his parents, whom he could not wake up. * Annie (Janet Wong) is a former Vietnamese child prostitute that has a knack for art.

Joe thinks he is there to fix and drive the bus, but he finds out his true knack is helping out the kids, especially shown when he reads Annie the riot act for her hooker-talk, and saves Anthony from setting another person's property on fire, and even takes the kids fishing for the first time.

After fixing the bus in the rain on a dirt road, Joe and Vivian have trouble getting it out of the mud. When Joe leaves to get help, he is found walking in lock step with a group of Klansmen, who follow him back to the bus. Joe then manages to talk the head Klansman and the rest into getting the bus out to get the kids to a hospital in Washington, suddenly claiming they are all blind. They agree sympathetically and push them out of the mud.

Somewhere in Montana, Donald catches up with them at a motel, after finding out Vivian lied to him and falsified the kids records. After trying to flee in the middle of the night, Donald catches up with them and demands they return to Philadelphia, which the kids, Vivian, and Joe all resist.

After arriving at the farm, Vivian meets with a banker in order to secure a $15,000 loan to save the farm. One of the other kids overhears them and tells the rest of the kids this. Joe then confronts the kids, who are whining and protesting about their fate. Joe learns about this as well and heads into town where he sees an ad for a "trapezoid scheme" and goes in to learn about it, dressed as a cowboy from Texarkana. Eventually, he works his way into sitting with the group and schemes to rip them off. He does and gets Vivian her $15,000 then leaves with her, while two men from the group pursue them. After evading them and burning the money, they go back to the farm and have an argument about the money.

They realize the old Rolls Royce from the bank is there, and they find out the kids told the president of the bank (who is also the mayor of the town) lies about what good things Joe and Vivian did, and convinced the mayor to give the loan and make the kids a part of the community. After they celebrate, Donald shows up with a police officer demanding they all return to Philadelphia but has a confrontation with the mayor that he ends up losing. In the end, it seems that Joe is going to go back to Philly with Donald, but Donald gets to the end of the driveway, and changes his mind and lets Joe stay.

Larry Abbot (Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Radner) are performers on radio's "Manhattan Mystery Theater" who decide to get married. Larry has been plagued with on-air panic attacks and speech impediments since proposing marriage. Vickie thinks it is just pre-wedding jitters, but his affliction could get them both fired.

Larry's uncle, Dr. Paul Abbot, decides that Larry needs to be cured. Paul decides to treat him with a form of shock therapy to "scare him to death" in much the same way someone might try to startle someone out of hiccups.

Larry chooses a castle-like mansion in which he grew up as the site for their wedding. Vickie gets to meet Larry's eccentric family: great-aunt Kate (DeLuise in drag), who plans to leave all her money to Larry; his uncle, Francis; and Larry's cousins, Charles, Nora, Susan, and the cross-dressing Francis Jr. Also present are the butler Pfister and wife Rachel, the maid; Larry's old girlfriend Sylvia, who is now dating Charles; and Susan's magician husband, Montego the Magnificent.

Paul begins his "treatment" of Larry and lets others in on the plan. Unfortunately for all, something more sinister and unexpected is lurking at the Abbot Estates mansion. The pre-wedding party becomes a real-life version of Larry and Vickie's radio murder mysteries, werewolves and all.

The infamous vampire Count Dracula is expelled from his castle by the Communist government of Romania, which plans to convert it into a training facility for gymnasts (including Nadia Comăneci). The world-weary Count travels to New York City with his bug-eating manservant, Renfield, and establishes himself in a hotel ... only after an airport transport mix-up accidentally sends his coffin to be the centerpiece at a funeral in a black church in Harlem. While Dracula learns that late 1970s America contains such wonders as blood banks, sex clubs, and discotheques, the Count also proceeds to suffer the general ego-crushing that comes from life in the Big Apple, after he romantically pursues flaky fashion model Cindy Sondheim. He has admired her from afar, believing her to be the current reincarnation of his true love Mina Harker.

Dracula is ineptly pursued in turn by Cindy Sondheim's psychiatrist and quasi-boyfriend Jeffrey Rosenberg. Jeffrey is the grandson of Dracula's old nemesis Fritz van Helsing, who changed his name to Rosenberg "for professional reasons". Rosenberg's numerous methods to combat Dracula (mirrors, garlic, a Star of David, which he uses instead of a cross, and hypnosis) are easily averted by the Count. Rosenberg also tries burning Dracula's coffin with the vampire still inside, but he is arrested by hotel security. Subsequently he tries to shoot Dracula with three silver bullets, but the Count remains unscathed, patiently explaining that this works only on werewolves. Rosenberg's increasingly erratic actions eventually cause him to be locked away as a lunatic. As mysterious cases of blood-bank robberies and vampiric attacks begin to spread, NYPD Lieutenant Ferguson starts to believe the psychiatrist's claims and gets Rosenberg released.

As a major blackout hits the city, Dracula flees with Cindy via taxi cab back to the airport, pursued by Rosenberg and Ferguson. His coffin is accidentally sent to Jamaica instead of London and the couple miss their flight. On the runway, Cindy finally agrees to become Dracula's vampire bride. Rosenberg attempts to stake Dracula, but as he moves in for the kill, they fly away. A check falls from the sky, by which Cindy pays off her (enormous) psychiatry bill owed to Rosenberg. He remarks, "She has become a responsible person ... or whatever". Rosenberg keeps Dracula's cape (the only thing his stake struck) which Ferguson borrows, hoping, since the cape makes the wearer, it will help him be stylish on his wedding anniversary. Dracula and Cindy, now transformed into bats, fly toward Jamaica.

This game takes place shortly after the events of ''Soulcalibur II'', in 1590. The amount of time is not specified, but taking into account the various characters' profiles, a minimum of four months has already passed (one month needed to carry Kilik and Xianghua back to his master's hermit, three months that took Kilik to surpass his master's training).

The wicked Soul Edge survived its fated encounter with the wielder of Soulcalibur, Xianghua, and restored its control over the body of Siegfried Schtauffen, turning him back into the Azure Knight Nightmare. Four years later, Nightmare was about to restore Soul Edge, when suddenly a man named Raphael appeared, intending on taking Soul Edge. Nightmare defeated the attacker, but was distracted by Siegfried's latent will trying to restore his body. Using the distraction, Raphael pierced Soul Edge's eye, giving Siegfried the edge he needed to break free from Soul Edge's control once again.

After waking up, Siegfried found the holy sword, free from its entrapment within the wicked sword, and out of instinct used it to pierce Soul Edge. The result led to both swords sealed together in a fateful embrace, an "Embrace of Souls". Siegfried took both weapons and started a quest to find a definitive way of sealing Soul Edge, but memories of his slaughters, plus the attacks of those resentful of the Azure Knight, drove his mind towards insanity. Unbeknownst to him, the evil soul of the blade escaped and obtained a temporary shell, starting a new killing spree to strengthen himself while seeking its body, Soul Edge.

What neither of the two warriors knows is that a man behind the scenes is controlling their steps, searching to end an everlasting curse. And that many other warriors ventured in search of the blade as well.

After his obesity embarrasses Bart at a church picnic, Homer attempts to lose weight and begins going on midnight jogs around town. He soon discovers "Power Sauce", an energy bar made with apples which he starts to eat regularly.

At a Gym, Homer meets Rainier Wolfcastle, who becomes his fitness coach. In two months, Homer is healthier, and more muscular and reveals his new exercise habits to his family. At the gym, two Power Sauce representatives, Brad and Neil, ask Rainier to climb to the top of Springfield's tallest mountain, "The Murderhorn", as a publicity stunt. When he refuses, Bart insists Homer volunteer to do it.

Despite Grampa telling him how he "died" in his early twenties, when he was betrayed by a friend, C. W. McAllister, during their climb on the Murderhorn in 1928, also a corporate publicity stunt, Homer accepts the challenge and is aided by two Sherpas, but fires them after waking up one night to find them secretly dragging him up. Upon learning about this, Brad and Neil fail to convince Homer to abandon the climb, admitting to him that "Power Sauce" bars are junk food but informing the public that he switched to a competing brand of energy bar.

The mountain proves too treacherous and high for Homer, who takes shelter in a cave. In it, he finds McAllister's frozen body and evidence proving it was Grampa who betrayed him, as well as attempting to eat him. Too tired and ashamed to continue, Homer sticks his flag pole on the plateau. An ensuing crack collapses the rest of the mountain, which makes the plateau he is on the 'actual' peak. Proud to have accomplished the climb, Homer uses McAllister's body to sled down the mountainside, where he is greeted by the crowd.

At Monk's Café, George tells Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer that his mother caught him masturbating, resulting in her falling over in shock and going to the hospital. George resolves never to masturbate again. When the others express skepticism, they make a bet over who can go the longest without masturbating. The men put up $100, while Elaine puts up $150, as the men insist it's easier for a woman to go without masturbating than a man.

Kramer fails almost immediately after seeing a naked woman in a neighboring apartment. The others meet various temptations: George is distracted while visiting his mother in the hospital by an attractive nurse giving another woman a sponge bath behind a curtain; Elaine's fitness club is patronized by John F. Kennedy Jr.; and Jerry is frustrated because his girlfriend Marla, a virgin, will not have sex with him. Jerry sedates his urges by watching children's cartoons.

The remaining contestants suffer insomnia. Kennedy asks Elaine to share a cab ride Uptown; she agrees even though she is going downtown. He arranges to see her again. The pressure becomes too much for her and she drops out of the contest. While making out on the couch, Marla asks Jerry if they can have sex, claiming that she is ready. However, Jerry mentions the contest, prompting Marla to leave in disgust. Elaine believes that Kennedy has stood her up, but George reveals that Kennedy missed her and went with Marla. They see Kramer with the naked woman across the street.

That night, everyone sleeps well, but it is not revealed whether Jerry or George won. Marla is in bed with Kennedy, having finally lost her virginity to him.

The plot centers on a masked martial artist known as Iron Monkey. Iron Monkey is actually the alter ego of a traditional Chinese medicine physician called Yang Tianchun. During the day, Yang runs his clinic and provides free medical treatment for the poor, which he subsidises by charging his rich patients. At night, he dresses in black and travels around town to rob the rich and help the poor. Once, he breaks into the governor's residence and makes off with a hoard of gold. The guards and four Shaolin monks are unable to stop him. The governor orders the chief constable, Fox, to hunt down Iron Monkey and to arrest anyone who is linked to him in any way. Fox appears to be a bungler who is not aware that Iron Monkey is actually the physician treating his injured men who fought with Iron Monkey the previous night.

In the meantime, Wong Kei-ying, also a physician and martial artist from Foshan, arrives in town with his young son, Wong Fei-hung. Wong Kei-ying fights with street thugs who attempt to rob him. Some soldiers who have been observing the fight nearby suspect that Wong is Iron Monkey, and they arrest him and his son. During the trial, the governor orders Wong Fei-hung to be branded for defiance, but Iron Monkey shows up and disrupts the proceedings. Wong Kei-ying is eager to prove his innocence, and he fights with Iron Monkey. Neither of them is able to defeat his opponent, and Iron Monkey escapes. The governor is impressed by Wong Kei-ying's skill, and he holds Wong Fei-hung hostage to force Wong Kei-ying to help him capture Iron Monkey within seven days.

The locals despise Wong Kei-ying for assisting the governor in capturing their hero, so they refuse to sell him food or provide him with shelter. Wong eventually arrives at Yang's clinic and is taken in by Yang and Miss Orchid, while he is still unaware of Yang's true identity. With help from Fox, Yang manages to bring Wong Fei-hung, who has fallen sick, out of prison and keeps him in his clinic. Wong Fei-hung learns new martial arts from Yang and Miss Orchid during his stay with them.

Meanwhile, a Shaolin traitor named Hin-hung, who has become an imperial official, arrives in town with his followers. Hin-hung takes over as the new governor. Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-ying run into Hin-hung and his men in two separate encounters, and they are severely wounded by him. They retreat back to the clinic, where Wong is surprised to discover that Yang is actually Iron Monkey. They assist each other and recover from their wounds quickly. Concurrently, Hin-hung orders his men to search the town for Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-ying, but Fox gets to the clinic first to warn Orchid. It turns out that Fox has known Iron Monkey's true identity all along, and he has been secretly helping Iron Monkey.

Hin-hung's monks eventually find their way to the clinic, and they engage Orchid in a fight. When Orchid proves far too skillful for the monks, they drug her and attempt to rape her. She is saved by Wong Fei-hung, who continues the battle with the monks using the staff movements he learn from Yang and Orchid. Although Wong Fei-hung is able to defeat the Hin-hung's best monks, he is captured and tortured. Orchid escapes to warn Wong Kei-ying and Iron Monkey.

Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-ying (also wearing the Iron Monkey costume) break into the governor's residence to rescue Wong Fei-hung and defeat Hin-hung's men and monks. They have a final confrontation with Hin-hung on top of burning wooden poles. After an intense fight, Iron Monkey and Wong Kei-ying defeat Hin-hung and knock him down into the inferno below. At the end of the film, the protagonists learn that a new governor has taken office, and they hope that he will be a good official. The Wongs leave town for Foshan while Yang and Orchid see them off. Fox says that he would like to visit the Wongs, but that he is too busy "trying to catch that Iron Monkey". After the film, screen captions inform viewers that Yang and Orchid are married, and that Wong Fei-hung, inspired by his father and the Iron Monkey, later becomes a hero among the Chinese and restores honor to the Shaolin Monastery.

The film closely follows the plot of the play, but restructures and reorders individual scenes. Welles trimmed the source material, which is generally around three hours when performed, down to a little over 90 minutes for the film.

Guy Van Stratten, a small-time American smuggler working in Europe, seeks out a Munich resident named Jakob Zouk to warn him about a plot against his life. Zouk is terminally ill and receives the news with apathy, so Stratten explains his personal reasons for wanting to keep Zouk alive. His narrative is accompanied by scenes in flashback.

Stratten’s story begins in Naples, where he gets a tip that Gregory Arkadin, a famous international oligarch of Russian heritage, possesses a dark secret centered on the name “Sophie”. Stratten and his girlfriend and accomplice Mily travel to Arkadin’s castle in Spain, hoping to use this meager information for blackmail. By striking up a friendship with Arkadin's daughter Raina, seemingly the only person for whom Arkadin feels affection, Stratten gets himself invited into the castle.

Arkadin has already learned of Stratten and Mily’s interest in him, and of the couple’s criminal history. Instead of turning them away he openly offers to pay for information about his past, which has been blotted out by amnesia. Arkadin says that in 1927 he woke up in a square in Switzerland, with a large sum of money in his pocket and no memory of his identity or past career. He successfully rebuilt his life, but is troubled by not knowing how it began; Stratten impresses him as sufficiently discreet and enterprising to find out.

Arkadin takes Mily on a yacht cruise, while Stratten travels the world searching for clues. He communicates periodically with Raina and a romance forms between the two, much to Arkadin’s displeasure. From interviews with a strange series of people— the proprietor of a flea circus, a junk-shop owner, an impoverished noblewoman in Paris, and a heroin addict he tortures with withdrawal— Stratten learns that the pre-1927 Arkadin was involved in a sex trafficking ring in Warsaw, abducting girls and selling them into prostitution in South Africa. "Sophie" is the former leader of the ring and Arkadin's old girlfriend, from whom he stole the money that he found in his pocket in Switzerland. She proves to be a relaxed, tolerant woman who remembers Arkadin with affection and has no intention of publicizing his past.

In the closing stages of the investigation, Stratten discovers that Arkadin has been following him and visiting all the witnesses. He confers with Raina, who startles him by saying that her father does not have amnesia; the entire pretext for hiring Stratten was a fraud.

Stratten attends Arkadin's Christmas Eve party in Munich, where he learns the real purpose of his investigation. Arkadin wished to cover up his criminal past, fearing especially that Raina might learn of it and cease to love him. He used Stratten to locate people possessing potentially dangerous evidence, all of whom have been murdered. Mily is also dead and Stratten has been framed for killing her, with the implication that he too will be silenced before the police catch him. Stratten hastens to find Jakob Zouk, the last surviving member of the sex trafficking ring, hoping to use him as some kind of weapon against Arkadin. Zouk grudgingly consents to go into hiding, but Arkadin soon traces him and has him stabbed to death.

Stratten makes a desperate new plan and buys the last seat on a plane to Barcelona. Raina has agreed to meet him at the airport; there he intends to reveal her father's secret, in the hope that this will break Arkadin’s spirit and make him abandon the plot. Arkadin realizes what Stratten is doing and pursues him in a private plane. Stratten and Raina connect at the airport, but she is almost immediately summoned to the control tower to talk to her father on the radio. With no time to explain, Stratten convinces her to say "it's too late". The lie fills Arkadin with despair, and he commits suicide by hurling himself out of his plane.

Ultimately Raina cannot condemn Stratten for the death of her father, but their love affair is at an end. She arranges for an old boyfriend to drive her away from the airport, leaving Stratten alone.

At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer Simpson believes he will win the Worker of the Week award; it is a union requirement that every employee gets the prize and Homer is the only plant employee who has never won. Instead, Mr. Burns, Homer's boss, gives the award to an inanimate carbon rod. Homer thinks no one respects him, and watches television to lighten his mood. Suddenly, the remote breaks and the TV is stuck on a telecast of a Space Shuttle launch, which Homer finds boring. Later on at Moe's Tavern, he prank calls NASA to complain. NASA subsequently decides to send an average Joe to space to improve their Nielsen ratings and they choose Homer. But when they first approach Homer, he believes he is in trouble and blames the prank call on barfly Barney Gumble. After they invite Barney to participate in a space launch, Homer tells NASA the truth and they agree to train both of them.

At Cape Canaveral, Homer and Barney compete in training exercises. While under NASA's alcohol ban, a sober Barney develops superior skills and is chosen to fly with Buzz Aldrin and Race Banyon. After toasting with a non-alcoholic drink, Barney reverts to alcoholism and leaves via a jetpack. Homer is selected as Barney's replacement, but he grows nervous and runs away during the preparations for takeoff. Marge encourages him to take advantage of the opportunity, and he rejoins the launch; it receives good television ratings.

Homer smuggles a bag of potato chips aboard the shuttle, and opens it upon reaching space. Because of the weightlessness in space, the chips disperse and threaten to clog the instruments. While eating them, Homer breaks an ant farm, and the ants destroy the navigation system. During his broadcast of the space mission, newscaster Kent Brockman erroneously believes the ants are giant aliens set to enslave Earth. Musician James Taylor, who was singing over the radio, suggests they blow the ants out the hatch. Homer fails to put on his harness and is nearly blown into space, grabbing on to the hatch handle. The hatch handle bends, preventing it from fully closing. While defending himself from a furious Race, Homer grabs a carbon rod and inadvertently uses it to seal the hatch. The shuttle returns safely to Earth, landing at a press convention. Although Buzz calls Homer a hero, the press only acknowledges the carbon rod; it appears on a ''Time'' cover and receives a ticker-tape parade. Despite this, Homer's family still celebrates him as a hero.

Des Esseintes in his study, by Arthur Zaidenberg (''Against the Grain'', New York, Illustrated Editions, 1931) The epigraph is a quotation from Jan van Ruysbroeck ('Ruysbroeck the Admirable'), the fourteenth-century Flemish mystic:

I must rejoice beyond the bounds of time ... though the world may shudder at my joy, and in its coarseness know not what I mean.

Jean des Esseintes is the last member of a powerful and once proud noble family. He has lived an extremely decadent life in Paris, which has left him disgusted with human society. Without telling anyone, he retreats to a house in the countryside, near Fontenay, and decides to spend the rest of his life in intellectual and aesthetic contemplation. In this sense, ''À rebours'' recalls Gustave Flaubert's ''Bouvard et Pécuchet'' (posthumously published in 1881), in which two Parisian copy-clerks decide to retire to the countryside and end up failing at various scientific and scholarly endeavors.

Huysmans' novel is essentially plotless. The protagonist fills the house with his eclectic art collection, which notably consists of reprints of the paintings of Gustave Moreau (such as ''Salome Dancing before Herod'' and ''L'Apparition''), drawings of Odilon Redon, and engravings of Jan Luyken. Throughout his intellectual experiments, Des Esseintes recalls various debauched events and love affairs of his past in Paris. He tries his hand at inventing perfumes and he creates a garden of poisonous tropical flowers. Illustrating his preference for artifice over nature (a characteristic Decadent theme), Des Esseintes chooses real flowers that apparently imitate artificial ones. In one of the book's most surrealistic episodes, he has gemstones set in the shell of a tortoise. The extra weight on the creature's back causes its death. In another episode, he decides to visit London after reading the novels of Charles Dickens. He dines at an English restaurant in Paris while waiting for his train and is delighted by the resemblance of the people to his notions derived from literature. He then cancels his trip and returns home, convinced that only disillusion would await him if he were to follow through with his plans.

Des Esseintes conducts a survey of French and Latin literature, rejecting the works approved by the mainstream critics of his day. He rejects the academically respectable Latin authors of the "Golden Age" such as Virgil and Cicero, preferring later "Silver Age" writers such as Petronius (Des Esseintes praises the decadent ''Satyricon'') and Apuleius (''Metamorphoses'', commonly known as ''The Golden Ass'') as well as works of early Christian literature, whose style was usually dismissed as the "barbarous" product of the Dark Ages. Among French authors, he shows nothing but contempt for the Romantics but adores the poetry of Baudelaire.

Des Esseintes cares little for classic French authors like Rabelais, Molière, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, preferring the works of Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Nicole, and Pascal. The nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, he exclaims, 'alone was in the right' with his philosophy of pessimism, and Des Esseintes connects Schopenhauer's pessimistic outlook with the resignation of ''The Imitation of Christ,'' a fifteenth-century Christian devotional work by Thomas à Kempis. Des Esseintes' library includes authors of the nascent Symbolist movement, including Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbière and Stéphane Mallarmé, as well as the decadent fiction of the unorthodox Catholic writers Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Barbey d'Aurevilly. Among Catholic literature, Des Esseintes expresses attraction for the work of Ernest Hello.

Eventually, his late nights and idiosyncratic diet take their toll on his health, requiring him to return to Paris or to forfeit his life. In the last lines of the book, he compares his return to human society to that of a non-believer trying to embrace religion.

Rachel is missing her boyfriend, and calls him from a telephone booth. He tells her that if she does not come back to England, their relationship is over. Rachel is left unsure about what course of action to take. The other members of the group decide to raise money for Rachel to return home by means of busking. They succeed in getting enough money for the trip and Rachel sets off to England, leaving S Club 7. However, she has a change of heart and returns, heartbroken, after deciding to remain in the group – but left reeling when her boyfriend dumps her over the phone.

Meanwhile, at Paradise Beach, the trailer park where they have stopped over for a few days on their journey through America, a poor family who have been stuck there for three years are hoping to get their car fixed – which is in such ruin that Jo initially cannot fix it, but she resolves to once Rachel has recouped the money from her unused fare for her return trip to England. The oldest of the children there, Jimmy Bob, is getting excited about his dad coming to see him on his birthday soon – only to get upset and run away when he is told he will not be able to come after all. The band split into groups to search for Jimmy Bob, with Rachel eventually finding him alone on the beach. She tells him that some people cannot understand that just because someone is not able to be there for them does not mean they do not want to.

A surprise birthday party for Jimmy Bob is held back at the trailer park and Jo unveils the fully restored car to the family, allowing Jimmy Bob to visit his father for his birthday. But before they then all head off again on their journey to Los Angeles, Jo has one last surprise for Rachel: a cute mechanic from whom Jo had gotten the spare parts for the car has stopped by to install the stoplights, and Rachel is instantly smitten with him. They talk for a while and Rachel is able to get over her ex-boyfriend by kissing the mechanic, vowing never to forget him.

In the year 1867, signs that the approaching winter will be a hard one produce agitation in the burgeoning mining town of Denver, as the hard-drinking citizenry fear a shortage of whiskey. Taking advice from Oracle Jones, a local guide and seer (but only when under the influence of alcohol), the populace arrange for a mass shipment of forty wagons full of whiskey to be delivered by the Wallingham Freighting Company. The whiskey wagon train heads out under the direction of company owner Frank Wallingham, who repeatedly describes himself as "a taxpayer and a good Republican".

This cargo becomes the target for several diverse groups, each with their own leaders and plans. Young Capt. Paul Slater of the United States Cavalry is assigned by Fort Russell commander Col. Thaddeus Gearhart to escort the Wallingham Wagon Train, and merely wishes to carry out his orders. A group of Irish teamsters, hired as wagon drivers, wishes to strike unless whiskey rations are distributed. A twice-widowed crusading temperance leader Cora Templeton Massingale and her followers, informed of the alcoholic cargo, wish to intercept the train and destroy its contents; the group therefore sets out escorted by a second cavalry division under the command of a reluctant Col. Gearhart.

Gearhart's daughter is engaged to Capt. Slater but entranced by Mrs. Massingale's message. Despite their extremely different personalities and inability to see eye to eye, the weatherbeaten Gearhart and beautiful Cora Massingale fall in love. Beneath her composure and grace, and even her occasional ribbing against him, Cora is infatuated with Gearhart from the moment he rides into the fort and spends much of the film trying subtly to win his affection.

Other interested parties include Sioux Indians, led by chiefs Five Barrels and Walks-Stooped-Over, and a Denver citizens' militia, led by Clayton Howell and guided by Oracle Jones, concerned about obtaining their precious supply of drinkables. Inevitably the various groups converge, and the ensuing property struggle is played out through a series of comic set pieces and several diplomatic overtures by an increasingly weary Gearhart. Highlights include a massive shoot-out between the concerned parties within a blinding sandstorm without a single injury, and a hostage situation when the Indians capture the Temperance members in order to reinforce their demands for alcoholic drink, and Massingale tricking Wallingham into riding his entire wagon train into a quicksand bog, where the wagons and their cargo sink into the pits. The participants then disperse, mostly disappointed; however, for Colonel Gearhart and Captain Slater the story ends with a double wedding, for Wallingham and Oracle with a lifetime supply of whiskey when buoyancy causes the barrels to erupt from the quicksand, and for the winter of 1867 to actually become one of the mildest ever.

Tam Olyn is an ambitious, vain, angry young man. Orphaned at a young age, and raised by a nihilist uncle, he cares little for others, with the possible exception of his younger sister, Eileen. Following his graduation from school, he is ready to launch his career as a journalist among the stars.

In a prelude to the main events of the novel, he and Eileen visit the Final Encyclopedia, a centuries-long project to try to collect and catalog all knowledge. While standing at the center of the index room, Tam is identified as a one-in-a-billion person who can actually hear the voices of humanity while there. The dying director of the Encyclopedia wants him to stay on and succeed him, but an Exotic, Padma from the planet Mara, reads him as having no identity with others, no empathy, no soul. He cannot help the Encyclopedia.

His sister has become engaged to Jamethon Black, a young mercenary from the Friendly world of Harmony. Despite the fact that Black seems a very decent young man, Tam callously manipulates his sister into breaking the engagement.

Shortly, he leaves Earth, beginning his profession as a newsman. In the following five years, he advances in his profession, while his sister emigrates to Cassida, and marries a young engineer there.

While covering a war on New Earth, he finds his sister's husband, who has been drafted, and attempts to keep him out of harm's way by using him as an assistant. The plan backfires. His brother-in-law, along with several other prisoners, is slaughtered by a fanatic Friendly soldier, in violation of the laws of war. Despite the fanatic's execution for his war crime, Tam chooses to blame the entire Friendly culture, and sets out to destroy them.

Unfortunately, Tam has the ability to analyze people and situations, and manipulate them expertly. Padma observes his actions, and tries to put a brake on his behavior, but he will not be stopped. By manipulating events, he creates a situation for the Friendlies that may result in their destruction as a viable culture.

In the culmination of events, he arrives to cover a war on the planet of St. Marie, a small agrarian world in the same system as Mara and Kultis, the Exotic planets. (At this point, the novella's narrative commences). On one side are the mercenary forces hired by the Exotics, led by the identical Dorsai twin brothers, Ian and Kensie Graeme. The twins, who appear in a number of other stories, are opposites in every way. Kensie is warm, friendly, loved by all, and a great leader of men. Ian is cold as ice, analytical, and a great tactician. He is respected and feared.

On the other side are a group of Friendlies who had been misled into supporting an abortive local revolution. The Friendlies are led by Jamethon Black, whose engagement Tam had broken years earlier. The Friendlies are hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered. Tam has manipulated the situation so that not only will the Friendlies lose, but their ability to hire out their soldiers will be crippled, possibly leading to the end of their viability as a culture. He believes he can link the Friendlies to assassins hired locally, against all the accepted rules of war. He tries to recruit Kensie Graeme in a scheme to expose this, but Kensie refuses and insists on prosecuting the campaign his own way.

Padma is also on St. Marie. He continues to try to dissuade Tam from his quest. He explains that people from the Splinter cultures are not insane fanatics as Tam sees them, but rather a new kind of human where all the components of the human spirit are unified in a single direction. He gives Tam a copy of a secret communication between Jamethon's superiors that appears to abandon hope of them winning, and leave them to be destroyed, and further to conceal this from the troops. Tam shows this to Jamethon, who interprets it a completely different way based on his faith.

The result is a shootout between Kensie Graeme, Jamethon and a few of his lieutenants at a parley meeting in a field, with Tam as a witness. Kensie kills all the attackers despite being outnumbered and surprised, since he was expecting to discuss surrender. This leaves the Friendly forces leaderless, giving them no option but to lay down their arms.

In the end, he is thwarted only by the faith of Black, and the honor and courage of the Graeme brothers, despite the incredible cost to them. The best qualities of the splinter cultures defeat the worst qualities of Tam Olyn. Padma tells Tam that his attempt to sway Jamethon actually solved his dilemma. By rejecting what he saw as the Devil's Choice of surrendering to save his own life, Jamethon saw a way to end the conflict by sacrificing himself in a futile attempt to assassinate a vastly superior Dorsai officer. Padma gave Tam the secret document knowing that this would be the outcome.

As Padma explains to him, had Tam succeeded, not only would a necessary component of the human spirit have been lost, but the entire balance of power among the worlds would have been horribly upset. Eventually, Padma manages to break through his shell, allowing Tam to grow into more of a human being, and take his place at the Final Encyclopedia. Tam, for his part, realizes that his lust for revenge was partly to cover his shame over his fear and cowardice on New Earth.

A key event in the aftermath, barely mentioned in this book, is the assassination of Kensie Graeme by agents of the original rebellion, and the manner in which his brother's honor prevents the bloodbath which could have resulted at the hands of Kensie's angry troops. These events occur after Tam has left the planet. The story is told in great detail in the short story, ''Brothers''. Padma tells Tam that his intervention has resulted in Ian Graeme transforming into an individual of unknown potential for the future. In the third novel of the trilogy, ''Dorsai!'', Ian is instrumental in leading the invasion and conquest of William of Ceta's home planet.

On the morning of January 20, 2001 the climax of the Cold War set the post-apocalyptic stage for the series. The end game began with a pre-emptive strike on Washington, DC. Underground nuclear bombs were detonated from within the basement of the Soviet embassy, by an elite group of Spetsnaz operatives, destroying the central command structure and political system of the United States. For an indefinite period of time a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union devastated both countries and subsequently the entire planet (but little details are known outside both countries). All manner of genetic contagions were released infecting the survivors of the firestorm with horrible illnesses. The remaining survivors lived harshly during a time of prolonged nuclear winter known as 'Skydark'. The geography, climate, and ecosystems of the world had changed dramatically. What was left of the United States came to be known as the Deathlands.

100 years later civilization begins again: brutal, short lived, morally confused and crazed from mutation. Between the many hot spots are small plague pits ruled by power hungry individuals who have no limits in order to establish their rule and expand their influence. These individuals are known as the Barons. Their rabble pits are known as Villes and Baronies. Civilization unknowingly resembles the Dark Ages. Trading resumes between the villes: Jack (a regional currency), Jolt (a hallucinogenic mixture of Mescaline and Heroin) and slaves are the primary forms of currency. Life is a strange mixture of ancient history and limited technology that is scrapped from the 20th century. Military technology is the most prized possession of all; success is often measured by the number of bullets he or she possesses. A man named Ryan Cawdor leads a group of companions across the deathlands. Ryan has extremely secret knowledge of the 20th century. The understanding of hidden underground complexes, known as redoubts, that contains Teleportation technology. He and his companions guard this knowledge with their lives. The technology is called MAT-TRANS.

Each novel usually begins with the companions arriving at a frequently unknown redoubt by MAT-TRANS. If the situation is impossible or hostile the companions can use the "last destination" feature of the transporter to return to the sending location. If the redoubt is unknown then the companions usually explore, looking for weapons and supplies which they rarely find. Sometimes they are lucky and find a working shower or stored food which they always utilize or take. The story picks up speed once the characters leave the redoubt and explore the surrounding countryside. Frequently the companions are captured or forced into a confrontation with the local barons. Each novel reveals a little of the characters' history, motivations and the regional location where they arrived.

Joseph (Jan Nowicki) travels through a dream-like world, taking a dilapidated train to visit his dying father, Jacob, in a sanatorium. When he arrives at the hospital, he finds the entire facility is going to ruin and no one seems to be in charge or even caring for the patients. Time appears to behave in unpredictable ways, reanimating the past in an elaborate artificial caprice.

Though Joseph is always shown as an adult, his behavior and the people around often depict him as a child. He befriends Rudolf, a young boy who owns a postage stamp album. The names of the stamps trigger a wealth of association and adventure in Joseph. Among the many occurrences in this visually potent phantasmagoria include Joseph re-entering childhood episodes with his wildly eccentric father (who lives with birds in an attic), being arrested by a mysterious unit of soldiers for having a dream that was severely criticized in high places, reflecting on a girl he fantasized about in his boyhood and commandeering a group of historic wax mannequins. Throughout his strange journey, an ominous blind train conductor reappears like a death figure.

Has also adds a series of reflections on the Holocaust that were not present in the original texts, reading Schulz's prose through the prism of the author's death during World War II and the demise of the world he described.

Conjoined twins Bob and Walt Tenor try to live as normally as possible. Outgoing and sociable Walt aspires to be a Hollywood actor, whereas Bob is shy and introverted.

The twins run Quikee Burger, a diner in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, guaranteeing free meals if orders are not completed in three minutes, showing how skilled and in sync Bob and Walt are. Walt is comfortable interacting with women, but Bob is shyer. He has a long-distance relationship with pen pal May Fong from California, whom he has never met and hasn't told he is a conjoined twin.

Walt stars in a one man show, while Bob stays as much as possible in the background, as he has stage fright. As the play's successful, Walt follows his dream to Hollywood, persuading his hesitant brother to go along for the ride.

They rent an apartment in California and become friends with fellow aspiring actress April Mercedes. When she asks about their conjoinment, Walt explains they share a liver that is mostly Bob's. As surgical separation is risky for Walt, Bob would not consent to the surgery, even though Walt wanted it. It is also why Walt looks older than Bob.

Walt has difficulty finding acting work in Hollywood, and his agent, Morty O'Reilly, isn't helpful, offering at one point to get him a job in a pornographic film. Cher is upset that she is starring in a prime-time TV show called ''Honey and the Beaze''. Wanting out, she hires Walt as her co-star, certain it will get cancelled. The producers realize her scheme and foil it by going forward, compensating for Bob's presence by keeping him out of the camera frame and employing bluescreen effects. The show is a surprise hit and Walt becomes famous.

Walt arranges for May Fong to meet Bob without his consent. They develop a romantic relationship, though the twins' attempt to keep their conjoined nature a secret proves challenging, especially as Walt must accompany them everywhere, sometimes using creative solutions like disguising himself as a giant teddy bear. Eventually, when May discovers them in bed, she concludes they are a gay couple rather than brothers. Although Bob shows her they are indeed conjoined twins, shocked at the lie, she flees.

Morty informs the twins that word has leaked about Walt and Bob being conjoined. Rather than hide this, they embrace it, becoming huge celebrities, making commercials and appearing on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''. While Walt enjoys this success, he knows that Bob is unhappy and misses May. Resolving that Bob needs to be independent to be happy, Walt demands they be surgically separated.

Bob refuses, so Walt acts wild and crazy. Drunk, he snatches a woman's purse and spends the night in jail for drunk driving. Although Walt was drinking, Bob has the hangover, as their shared liver is mostly his. Released the following morning, they fight and Bob agrees to the operation.

On the night before the surgery, May shows up, apologizing to Bob for running out. He informs her that they're getting separated; although she does not want them to, he says it's best. At the hospital, May and April wait until Ben Carson, a real-life neurosurgeon in a cameo, that the surgery was successful.

Bob and May, small-town people, move back to Oak Bluffs, but Bob finds the separation from Walt difficult, both practically and emotionally, and has difficulty doing things by himself they used to do together, such as maintain Quikee Burger's three-minute challenge or play hockey. Walt loses his job when ''Honey and the Beaze'' is canceled due to low ratings, and doesn't find more work. He is also emotionally devastated by Bob's absence. After a brief talk with Cher about what's best for him, he moves back to Oak Bluffs.

One year later, Walt and Bob are running the restaurant together, Bob and May have married and May is pregnant. The twins simulate their former conjoinment with Velcro clothing that attaches them. Walt finds creative fulfillment continuing in local plays, including a musical in which he and Meryl Streep play Bonnie and Clyde.

A proclamation to the stockholders of the White Star Line declares the value of their stock is falling. The president of the Line, J. Bruce Ismay (E.F. Fürbringer), promises to reveal a secret during the maiden voyage of the line's new which will change that. He alone knows she can break the speed record and receive the Blue Riband, and he believes this will raise the stock's value.Dunbar, John N. (2014) ''A Critical History of History in Motion Pictures''. Author House. pp. 389–91. Ismay and the board of the White Star Line plan to manipulate the stock by selling short their own stock in order to buy it back at a lower price just before the news about the ship's record speed is revealed to the press.

On ''Titanic ''s maiden voyage in April 1912, First Officer Petersen (Hans Nielsen), the sole German crew member onboard, begs the arrogant Bruce Ismay to slow the ship while sailing through ice-infested North Atlantic waters, but Ismay refuses and pressures the weak-willed Captain Smith (Otto Wernicke) to keep up the vessel's record-breaking speed. Because of Ismay's recklessness, ''Titanic'' hits an iceberg and begins to sink. The passengers in First Class act like cowards, while Petersen, his Russian aristocrat ex-lover Sigrid Olinsky (Sybille Schmitz), and several German passengers in steerage behave bravely and with dignity. With Sigrid's assistance, Petersen manages to rescue many passengers before convincing her to board one of the last lifeboats. He then arranges a seat for Ismay in order for him to stand trial for causing the disaster. As the water ravages through the ship, Petersen finds a young girl, left to die in her cabin by her uncaring capitalist parents. Petersen leaps from the sloping deck with the girl in his arms and is pulled aboard Sigrid's lifeboat, where the two are reunited; the occupants then watch in horror as ''Titanic'' plunges beneath the waves.

At the British Inquiry into the disaster, Petersen testifies against Ismay, condemning his actions, but Ismay is cleared of all charges and the blame is placed squarely on the deceased Captain Smith's shoulders. An epilogue states that "the deaths of 1,500 people remain un-atoned, an eternal condemnation of Britain's endless quest for profit."

Manhattan food writer Rachel Samstat and Washington, D.C. political columnist Mark Forman meet at a mutual friend's wedding. Both have been married before and Mark has a reputation for being a serial womanizer. After a whirlwind courtship, the two marry, despite Rachel's reservations.

They purchase a dilapidated townhouse and Rachel struggles to adapt to being a wife in Washington's political high society. The ongoing renovations of their house create some stress in Mark and Rachel's marriage, but they are brought closer together when she discovers she is pregnant. Rachel experiences a difficult labor in which the baby's life is briefly threatened, but she gives birth to a healthy baby girl, Annie.

Soon after, Rachel discovers evidence of Mark's extramarital affair with socialite Thelma Rice during her pregnancy with her second child. She leaves him and takes their daughter to New York, where she moves in with her father and gets her job back as a food writer.

Although Rachel insists that she has left him for good, she is dismayed when he fails to call her after several days. She inadvertently leads a burglar to a group therapy session she is attending in her therapist's apartment; he robs the group and takes Rachel's wedding ring. Just after, Mark arrives and asks her to come back, insisting he will never see Thelma again.

Rachel gives birth to their second child, but struggles to fully forgive Mark. She spreads a nasty rumor about Thelma having an infection (possibly herpes) but is caught out by Mark.

The New York police return Rachel's wedding ring after they catch the burglar. When she takes it to the jeweler's to get the stone tightened, she discovers that Mark has bought a very expensive necklace, which coincides with Thelma's birthday. Realizing that he has returned to the affair, Rachel sells her wedding ring and leaves with both her children for New York, this time for good.

The film starts with Santa feeling ill and going out for fresh air on a flight in his sleigh. Because of bad weather, he falls out and lands in Los Angeles. After the fall, he is unable to remember who he is. An afraid-of-commitment TV news reporter finds him and uses him on TV to get audience while asking them to find his family. In the meantime, Santa works in a mall.

The TV news reporter's girlfriend's son repeatedly tries to convince the adults that he is the real Santa Claus, which the adults refuse to believe.

Santa still remembers certain details about Christmas but is unable to remember how he knows them, as typically happens with source amnesia. All the while, Santa's elves are looking for him. Near the end, a couple thinks it could be their grandfather who has grown a beard, and take him with them. Instead, when it is proved he is Santa, the reporter regains his faith in Christmas and gains a family.

“Yertle the Turtle”

The eponymous story revolves around Yertle the Turtle, the king of the pond (located on the faraway island of Sala-ma-sond), where all of the turtles swim happily. Dissatisfied with the stone that serves as his throne (it's too small for him to rule the landscape beyond the pond), Yertle commands the other turtles to stack themselves beneath him so that he can see farther and expand his kingdom, each time marveling at what he believes he now rules (like a cow, a mule, and a house). However, the stacked turtles are in pain. A turtle named Mack, who has a checkerboard-style shell and is at the bottom of the pile, is bearing the brunt of the suffering. Mack asks Yertle for a respite, but Yertle just tells him to be quiet. Then Yertle decides to further expand his kingdom and commands more and more turtles to add to his throne. Mack makes a second request for a respite because the increased weight is now causing extreme pain and hunger to the turtles at the bottom of the pile. Again, Yertle yells at Mack to be quiet. Then Yertle notices the Moon rising above him as the night approaches. Furious that something "dares to be higher than Yertle the King", he decides to call for even more turtles in an attempt to rise above it. However, before he can give the command, Mack decides he has had enough. He burps, which shakes up Yertle's throne and tosses the turtle king off the turtle stack and into the water, leaving him "King of the Mud" and allowing the others to once again swim free, "as turtles, and maybe all creatures, should be."

“Gertrude McFuzz”

The second story recounts the tale of the "girl-bird" Gertrude McFuzz, who only has one small, plain tail feather and envies Lolla Lee Lou, who has two feathers. She goes to her uncle, Doctor Dake, for something that will make her tail grow. He tries to tell her that her tail is just right for her species, but she throws a tantrum. He gives in and he tells her where she can find berries that will make her tail grow. The first berry makes her tail exactly like Lolla Lee Lou's, but greed overtakes her. Now wanting to surpass Lolla Lee Lou, she eats the entire vine, causing her tail to grow to an enormous size. But the added weight of too many feathers does not allow her to fly, run, or even walk. Panicked, she yelps repeatedly, while being stuck on the hill. Her uncle, having heard her painful cries for help, sends for many other birds to carry her home and pluck out her tail feathers, which takes a few weeks, causing her to be sore. Though she has only one feather left—as before—she now has "enough, because now she is smarter."

“The Big Brag”

The third and final story tells of a rabbit and a bear, who both boast that they are the "best of the beasts", because of the range of their hearing and smelling abilities, respectively. However, they are humbled by a worm who claims he can see all around the world—right back to his own hill, where he sees the rabbit and bear, whom he calls "the two biggest fools that have ever been seen". Then the worm "dived in his hole and went back to his work".

Like the first game, ''Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side'' follows the story of the Eternal Champion, who felt the balance of the universe and time had been disturbed by the deaths of key individuals who had been destined to change the world for the greater good. To restore the balance, he held a great contest in which the winner would be granted the gift of new life, allowing them to fulfill their rightful destiny.

In this second chapter, it is revealed that the Eternal Champion has an evil counterpart: the Dark Champion. The Dark Champion appears and declares that he also will enter the contest and that he has hidden four more warriors, preventing the contest from truly being fulfilled. The contestants must not only achieve the aims of the Eternal Champion but also face the Dark Champion if they want their lives back.

Fighters

The game consists of a total of 24 playable characters; 13 are available from the start, and the remainder being locked at first. All of the characters from the first game return with minor palette changes. The hidden characters can be unlocked by pressing specific button combinations on the statistics screen after a match in Versus Mode.

The game now features two final boss characters; the Eternal Champion, followed by the Dark Champion. It is implied in the instruction manual and game packaging that some of the new characters may be “evil” and working in collusion with the Dark Champion to disrupt the Eternal Champion’s tournament. Beating Arcade Mode with any character will reveal an epilogue explaining how the winner managed to avoid their original death, and make a major change in their era. It is followed by a series of FMVs depicting how the other starting characters encountered their original deaths. There are no such FMVs for the unlockable characters. Starting characters can also defeat other starting characters with a move called “Cinekills”. This is an FMV showing the Dark Champion taking the loser to his lair and killing them based on their biggest fear.

Five of the unlockable characters are animals, and added for comedic purposes. Weaker versions of the main bosses can be unlocked for versus mode, but they cannot be used in Arcade mode without use of cheat codes.

Starting characters

• Blade – Jonathan Blade is a Syrian bounty hunter from 2030 A.D. He was hired by the government to help track down a terrorist that had stolen a lethal virus. Blade was about to apprehend the terrorist when special forces agents opened fire on both of them, accidentally causing the terrorist to drop the vial and release the virus.
• Dawson – Sherriff Dawson McShane is a law enforcer from the American Wild West in 1849. He was lynched by a notorious gang as revenge for apprehending one of their members.
• Jetta – Jetta Maxx is a member of Russian aristocracy from 1899 A.D. She was working undercover as a circus acrobat at the time of her death. A boxer revolutionary tampered with her tightrope equipment ahead of a major show in China. She fell to her death in front of the live crowd. When her true identity was revealed, it heightened tensions between both nations. Larcen – Larcen Tyler is a former cat-burglar from 1920’s Chicago. He used to do jobs for a local crime boss. He was hired to plant evidence in the hospital room of a rival mafia leader. It was only when he got to the location that he discovered that his real target was the Chief of Police, and the “evidence” was actually a bomb. Larcen was killed in the explosion that destroyed most of the hospital. Midknight – Midknight is a vampire-like mutant hiding in Vietnam. In his former life, he was the noted British biochemist Mitchell Middleton Knight. He was hired by U.S. forces to spike water supplies during the Vietnam War in 1967. He became exposed to the chemical, and was mutated like every other victim. He was killed by a vampire hunter hired by the government before he could create a cure. Ramses III – Ramses III is an Egyptian pharaoh from 151 B.C. When his body washed ashore in the River Nile, his death was presumed to be an accident due to him being a weak swimmer. Only his killer knows he was pushed. Raven – Raven Gindhar is a voodoo priestess from 1802. An aging witchdoctor pretended to be an injured old man to gain her trust. He then used her own magical hourglass to completely drain her of her youth until she died. R.A.X. – R.A.X. Coswell is an American cyber-kickboxer from 2345 A.D. His trainer programmed a virus into his R.A.X. exoskeleton software to ensure he lost an important match. Coswell died during the match as a result. Riptide – Riptide is a pirate from 1566. She and her entire family were killed by a ruthless pirate after discovering the location of his stolen loot. Shadow – Shadow Yamato is a ninja assassin from modern-day (1995 A.D.) Japan. She was thrown off the top of her employer’s skyscraper before she could publicly expose the murderous actions of her syndicate. Slash – Slash is a prehistoric hunter from 50,000 B.C. He was sentenced to death by the elders of his tribe who feared that Slash would use his high intelligence to usurp them. Trident – An artificial being created by the Atlanteans from 110 B.C. He was killed by a rival before he could compete in the final match of a gladiator tournament. As a consequence, the Roman Empire banished his race to the sea where they were eventually wiped out. Xavier – Xavier Pendragon was an alchemy student from 1692 A.D. He was executed under a false charge of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.

Unlockable characters

*Blast – Sgt. Thomas “Blast” Chavez is a helicopter pilot with the Green Berets in 1955. He was killed during his final mission in Vietnam when his co-pilot turned traitor and dropped a grenade in his helicopter just after take-off. Blast was intended to be in the first game, but was removed due to memory limitations. * Chin Wo – Chin Wo is an acupuncturist and healer from Hong Kong in 1815. He had been a champion fighter for the Emperor despite hating violence. He refused to accept a challenge for a fight to death from a young rival. The rival then murdered a beggar and framed Chin. The rival offered to have the charges dropped if Chin accepted his challenge. For his refusal, Chin was executed on a false murder charge. Like Blast, Chin was intended to be in the first game, but was removed due to memory limitations. * Crispy – A chicken from Vietnam. Crispy tries to prevent some heavily armed “farmers” from claiming his fellow livestock as food, but is killed. * Hooter – Hooter is an owl that served as the familiar to a warlock (implied to be Thanatos). After his master is executed during the Salem Witch Trials, Hooter begins studying each execution to form a plan to avenge his master’s death. A civilian realises that Hooter is always present and suspects him to be a witch too. Hooter is then thrown unto a bonfire with another victim. * Senator – As his name implies, he is a Senator from Washington D.C., only by the time of the game, he was recently removed. He had become rich and powerful through bribes from corrupt organisations. His 1995 re-election campaign centered around exposing corruption in politics. His former sponsors conspired to ensure he lost. Having lost all of his money on an unsuccessful campaign, he suffered a heart attack and died alone. He is the only character to die by natural causes. He is a joke character designed to mock lobbyists who had rallied for censorship in video games. * Slither – Slither is a pet rattlesnake that lives in a bar. He is killed while helping his owner try to stop an armed robbery. * Thanatos – Thanatos is the human form of the Greek god of death. He was turned human by a rival’s curse. As he retained some of his supernatural abilities, he was executed in the Salem Witch Trials under a false charge of witchcraft. * Yappy – Yappy is a pampered dog who inherited everything after its owner passed away. A cruel family member dumped Yappy in the streets to try and claim the inheritance. Yappy attempted to get revenge by chewing through the brake cables of their car, but became stuck. Yappy fell out while the car was in motion, and was crushed under a wheel. * Zuni – Zuni is a performing circus monkey. He attempts to raise the alarm when a lantern gets knocked over and sets fire to straw in the animal enclosure. During the panic, he is accidentally trampled to death by an elephant. All of the animals are killed in the fire.

Bosses

*The Eternal Champion – The Eternal Champion is the host of the tournament. He awakens every thousand years to hold the contest. He selects people who died before they could do great things in their era. This involves removing them from their original timeline just before their point of death. If the tournament winner can also defeat him, he will tell the winner how they originally died so they may attempt to prevent it. The Eternal Champion uses supernatural attacks based on animals. * The Dark Champion – The second and final boss. He attempts to disrupt the tournament so that none of the participants will change history for the better. He also attempts to corrupt them by encouraging them to become more blood-thirsty, and will kill some of them through “Cinekills”. His fighting style is identical to The Eternal Champion, but his powers are based on natural disasters.

The story begins with the narrator, relating the decision of the unnamed protagonist (who represents the reader) to leave town. The protagonist travels through several geometrical and polychromatic landscapes and places, eventually encountering a place simply called "The Waiting Place", which is ominously addressed as being a place where everyone is always waiting for something to happen. As the protagonist continues to explore, spurred on by the thoughts of places he will visit and things he will discover, the book cheerfully concludes with an open ending.

Matthias "Matt" Lee Whitlock is the respected Chief of Police of the small Florida Keys town of Banyan Key. Recently separated, Whitlock is currently seeing local resident Ann Merai-Harrison, an old flame from high school whose husband Chris, a former professional quarterback seemingly oblivious to the relationship, abuses her. While taking Ann to the doctor, Matt finds out she has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Matt is also going through a divorce from his wife, homicide detective Alex, and confides in his friend, medical examiner Chae.

Ann intends to reward Matt's loyalty to her by making him the sole beneficiary of her $1,000,000 life insurance policy. Matt suggests that she should travel to Switzerland to undergo a newly developed, groundbreaking treatment. The problem is that Ann does not have any money. Desperate to help her, Matt takes $485,000 out of evidence and gives it to her so she can make the trip. When the money goes up in flames in a suspicious house fire that kills Ann and Chris, Matt is horrified to find their charred remains.

Upon investigation, Matt discovers that the doctor that diagnosed Ann was an imposter, Ann didn't have cancer, and that he has been set up.

When the Drug Enforcement Administration agents call the next day to get the evidence money in order to bust a higher drug lord, Matt responds erratically. He finds out that the money is now with the imposter doctor and that Alex is about to bust him. He rushes to the hotel and after a brief struggle, he accidentally kills the imposter, takes the money and flees. Although Matt is seen by the police, he is thought to have come to protect Alex.

Later that evening, Alex finds that Matt is Ann's sole beneficiary and also that he has been in a relationship with her. At the same time, Matt receives a distress call from Ann, who is still alive, and unofficially goes to save her. Chris and Matt fight, Ann shoots and kills Chris. Then Ann reveals that she had planned all of this for money and fortune, and shoots Matt in the leg.

When Ann is about to kill Matt, Alex kills her; Alex traced Matt using a GPS tracker and asks him whether he planned to elope with the money but Matt reveals that he has not brought the money with him. When the irritated DEA agents come to arrest Matt as he had promised to deliver the money earlier that day, he says that his man was sent to Miami, and simultaneously Chae appears with the money, explaining about a wrong address and that he could not find the DEA office. So the DEA agents leave with the money and Matt has no charges on him.

Later, when Matt is on medical leave, Chae visits him with news that Matt is the recipient of Ann's insurance policy. But Alex says that, "as his wife," she knows that Matt has to reject it, meaning that she has decided to drop the divorce and move back in with Matt. Overjoyed, Matt seemingly forgets about the life insurance money, though Chae is amusingly adamant that Matt must take it.

The novel depicts a near-future London in which traffic congestion has reached almost critical levels, such that accidents in a few key places could bring the entire city's traffic network to a halt. The government is aware of the problem and plans a major new road-building program to relieve the pressure. The alternative, heavy investment in public mass transport systems such as railways, is ignored because it clashes with the government's ideology. The author argues that this is a highly misguided policy since, in his view, more roads have historically tended to simply generate more traffic and so create an even bigger problem in the long run.

The climax of the book sees shadowy, possibly government-backed forces deliberately instigate the necessary simultaneous accidents which do indeed bring the whole of London to a standstill for several days. The resulting chaos is used as an excuse to press ahead with the road-building scheme.

Setting

''Command & Conquer'' is set in an alternate history, and begins with a meteor crashing near the river Tiber in Italy in 1995. The meteorite brings with it an alien substance that scientists call Tiberium, named after its impact site, which can absorb and crystallize precious metals from the surrounding soil, but also terraform its surroundings and produce extremely toxic gases and radiation that is fatal to humans and animals. An ancient, cultic society called the Brotherhood of Nod, who claims to have foreseen the potentials of this new substance through their self-proclaimed messianic figure known only as Kane, invests in the development of technology to harvest and refine Tiberium crystals, way ahead of the scientific community's own research, and use the resources it gathers to accumulate a rapidly growing army of followers worldwide.

By the beginning of the game, Tiberium has spread across the planet, with Nod having control of nearly half of substance that is growing, and conducting terrorist campaigns in wealthy countries, while establishing footholds in some of the poorer nations. The Global Defense Initiative, initially formed by the United Nations as a multinational peacekeeping force in the aftermath of an alternate version of World War II, has since been repurposed as a global anti-terrorist organization, and makes its new goal the elimination of Nod across the globe. The conflict between the two sides eventually culminates in a world-wide war between GDI and Nod, with the Nod campaign taking place in Africa and the GDI campaign being set in Europe.

While all of the other ''Command & Conquer'' games made by Westwood Studios featured campaigns with mutually exclusive storylines, resulting in absolute victory for their respective factions, it is never made explicitly clear that this is the case for the first ''Command & Conquer''. As a result, there has been speculation that both campaigns might be canon, with the GDI ending (which results in Kane's apparent demise) taking place after the Nod ending.

GDI campaign

With the UN calling for GDI to assist in combating Nod in Europe, the player assists as a GDI commander under the command of General Mark Jamison Sheppard. After establishing a beachhead within Nod's territory in Eastern Europe, GDI focus on controlling Poland and Belarus and removing troops from occupied lands in Germany. However, Kane uses media manipulation to convince the world that GDI deliberately attacked and massacred the citizens of the Polish city of Białystok. Although Sheppard denies GDI's involvement, the UN cuts funding to the military outfit, forcing GDI to mount defensive operations against a sudden surge of Nod attacks, including protecting bases and leading Tiberium scientist Dr. Ignatio Mobius. However, Nod soon finds themselves on the defensive upon learning that it was a ruse designed by Sheppard and the UN to lure them into a false sense of security, with new funding allowing GDI to bring forth new combat units to help in battle. Eventually GDI locates Kane's main base of operation at a complex called the Temple of Nod in Sarajevo, Bosnia, with Sheppard ordering the commander to launch a final assault to defeat him. GDI succeeds, with the complex destroyed by GDI's superweapon, the space-based Ion Cannon, ending the conflict, though leaving some experts to question if Nod will cease operating.

Nod campaign

With Nod engaged in open warfare across the globe, Kane gives orders for his forces to secure territory in Africa, with his second-in-command Seth assigning the player, a new recruit, to assist in the Brotherhood's operations. After successfully conducting operations in Northern Africa through the use of both conventional and unconventional warfare, hitting GDI targets, eliminating warlords, and securing a set of codes for nuclear missiles, Seth attempts to send the recruit to attack the United States military, but is executed by Kane for initiating a rogue operation. Upon combating the chaos Seth created, and countering GDI's efforts to re-establish themselves in Northern Africa, Kane assigns his recruit to lead the charge in securing the rest of the continent, eventually culminating in them establishing a Temple of Nod in South Africa and securing control of GDI's Ion Cannon. With the cannon secured, Kane denotes victory in Africa, and makes plans to achieve the same in Europe, allowing the recruit to use the cannon to destroy one of four historical landmarks with the hijacked Ion Cannon - the White House, the British Houses of Parliament, the Eiffel Tower, or the Brandenburg Gate - thus shattering GDI's public image.

Connection to ''Command & Conquer: Red Alert''

''Command & Conquer: Red Alert'' was intended to be a prequel to ''Command & Conquer'', and both the Allied and Soviet campaigns contain references to ''Command & Conquer''. In particular, some of the Soviet mission briefings feature Kane, while one of the cutscenes in the Allied campaign directly foreshadows the creation of GDI. Also in the Soviet final cutscene, Nadia says "this temporary chaos in Europe will only help to fuel the Brotherhood's cause", mentions "the land of Nod", and states that "the Brotherhood will tire of the USSR in the early 1990s". However, ''Command & Conquer'' has the Brotherhood of Nod start out as an underground terrorist organisation initially operating out of the African continent, not as a major political force in control of the late Soviet empire. Furthermore, the Soviet Union is shown on world maps to no longer exist at the time, with the Russian Federation being shown as a member of GDI. With the release of ''Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2'', a hotly debated topic which arose among fans was whether ''Command & Conquer'' follows the conclusion of the Allied or Soviet storyline, with evidence existing for both sides of the debate. Former ''C&C'' designer Adam Isgreen confirmed that ''Tiberian Dawn'' in fact follows on the conclusion of ''Red Alert'''s Allies campaign, while ''Red Alert 2'' and ''Yuri's Revenge'' take place in a second parallel universe, created by a new attempt to alter history in "''Tiberian Incursion''", the working title of Westwood Studios' cancelled version of ''Command & Conquer 3''. The exact relationship between the events of the two games remains unclear, and their connection was later disregarded by Electronic Arts, who preferred to treat the ''Tiberium'' and ''Red Alert'' series as completely separate universes.

Setting

''Tiberian Sun'' takes place within an alternate timeline involving two factions - the Global Defense Initiative (GDI), and the Brotherhood of Nod - and an alien substance called "Tiberium", and occurs after the events of ''Command & Conquer''. Tiberium has become a serious problem for the world since its arrival in the 1990s, not only in causing a conflict between GDI and Nod over control of the valuable crystals it creates from leeching precious metals from the soil - leading to the First Tiberium War - but also allowing the substance to slowly spread and terraform the planet's ecology and landscape, including causing mutations in humans, the formation of new alien lifeforms, and the development of new weather patterns called Ion Storms. By the 21st century, GDI is focused on researching the means to combat Tiberium's spread, making use of an orbital space station called the ''Philadelphia'' to command its forces, while Nod has splintered following the presumed death of its leader Kane, with both factions working to develop new technology to provide each with equal strength in their armies, including armoured walkers, cyborgs, advanced defensive measures, and armoured infantry.

The campaigns of ''Tiberian Sun'' focus on a new global conflict erupting in 2030, when Kane returns and re-energises Nod, forcing GDI to combat their efforts, and resulting in the Second Tiberium War. GDI's campaign focuses on the efforts of a commander who must combat the sudden surge of attacks, working alongside a faction of mutants known as "The Forgotten", in order to thwart Kane's latest plans with Tiberium. Nod's campaign focuses on the efforts of an officer who escapes execution by a de facto leader, controlled by GDI, and works to reunite Nod in order to complete Kane's plans.

GDI Campaign

GDI commander Michael McNeil is recalled from a training exercise to assist in combating Nod, after being informed by his superior, General James Solomon, that Kane has returned. McNeil is assigned with initially pushing out Nod forces from GDI territories in North America, led by Nod general and drug lord Vega, before Solomon assigns him to assist a recon team in securing a ship of alien origin that the Brotherhood have taken an interest in. Although the ship is secured, GDI finds it cleaned out by Vega and proceed to track him down, coming across a mutant named Umagon who requests their help in rescuing Tratos, the leader of the Forgotten, who can help explain what Vega stole. Discovering that the ship contained an alien database called the Tacitus that Kane sought, McNeil pursues Vega to his base in Central America. Cornered and learning that Kane has no further use for him, Vega takes a fatal drug overdose before his base is nuked, informing McNeil before he dies that the Tacitus is already being shipped to Nod's base in North Africa.

Learning that Nod is pursuing after GDI's research in Northern Europe, focused on creating sonic crystals that can help combat Tiberium's spread, McNeil is assigned to reclaim an important GDI base in the region before pursuing after the stolen crystals. GDI soon learns that Kane has developed chemical missiles that can accelerate the spread of Tiberium across the continent, forcing McNeil to combat the imminent threat it poses along with eliminating a factory developing a new aircraft for the Brotherhood. Eventually, GDI moves towards Egypt to combat Nod at their main base in Cairo, only to learn that Kane's ultimate plan is to launch an ICBM missile containing a warhead of pure, concentrated Tiberium, that can transform the entire planet. Against the advice of Solomon, McNeil launches a direct assault on Kane's base, ultimately destroying the missile and killing Kane, ending the conflict once again, and securing the Tacitus for GDI's research team to analyze.

Nod Campaign

Anton Slavik, an officer of Nod's elite unit called "The Black Hand", is arrested by the Brotherhood's new leader Hassan, who is a GDI spy. Before he can be executed, Slavik is rescued by a member of his crew, posing as a Nod journalist, and begins working to reunite Nod in Northern Africa, with the assistance of the Brotherhood's AI CABAL. Shortly after capturing Hassan and ending the internal conflict within the Brotherhood, Slavik charges him for treason, revealing him to be a GDI puppet. Before Hassan is executed, Kane announces his return, fully reuniting Nod's splinter factions. Pleased with Slavik's work, Kane assigns him to disrupt a GDI excavation at Nod's former temple in Sarajevo, in order to prevent them locating an alien database and a special project housing it. However, Slavik finds the project missing, having been taken by Vega. Forced to North America to retrieve it, Slavik and his crew recover the missing project and the database (the Tacitus), but are tricked by GDI into attacking a research facility, leading to them being captured.

Imprisoned in a base in Northern Europe, Slavik receives a message from CABAL that a Nod strike force has arrived to rescue him, and executes a plan that leads to his escape. Learning from Kane that he has completed a new missile that will give Nod an ultimate victory and shape the future of the planet, Slavik implements operations to disrupt GDI's research into a new advanced battle walker, and captures a member of a highly advanced GDI base in order to infiltrate it. With Kane's plan nearing completion, Slavik attacks the base, captures it, and uses anti-satellite weapons to destroy the ''Philadelphia''. Kane then launches his missile, achieving ascension and vanishing, while transforming the Earth into a Tiberiumized planet that he had envisioned as humanity's evolutionary future.

Several months after the Second Tiberium War has concluded, GDI conducts a salvage operation to recover important technology from Kane's former Temple in Cairo, including the alien database known as the Tacitus. Shortly after it is recovered, an ion storm hits the command ship ''Kodiak'' carrying it and causes it to crash. Because of a communication blackout with the space station ''Philadelphia'', GDI officer General Cortez assumes temporary command from a ground base, and assigns a commander to recover the database and any survivors at the crash site, whereupon the core is sent to a GDI research team led by Cortez's ex-wife Dr. Boudreau, who is working to find the means to counter the spread of Tiberium before the planet becomes too toxic for humans to live on.

Meanwhile, Black Hand leader Anton Slavik faces opposition from several Nod council members to allow him to lead the Brotherhood, and assigns a task force to help him reactivate the Brotherhood's AI CABAL. Once active, CABAL assigns a Nod commander to cause disruptions against GDI settlements, as well as eliminating the mutant leader Tratos, forcing GDI to quell the resultant riot that erupts. Slavik becomes concerned over the assignments his commander received from CABAL and soon orders the AI to be shut down, only for it turn against Nod. GDI, seeking another way to translate the Tacitus with Tratos dead, acquires a core belonging to CABAL in order to use the AI, and soon learn the database is missing a segment. Upon the segment being recovered and connected to the database, CABAL betrays GDI and attacks them with cyborgs, forcing Cortez to order the evacuation of Boudreau's team.

With both GDI and Nod seeking to stop the crisis being caused by CABAL, Cortez orders his forces to prevent the AI from securing humans to be processed into more cyborgs, while Slavik assigns a team to raid a GDI base and secure an EVA unit to replace the rogue AI. Eventually, both sides form a ceasefire in the wake of CABAL's actions, deeming the AI too great a threat to ignore. Both sides launch operations to counter CABAL's forces, and eventually destroy his core, ending the crisis. Boudreau eventually manages to unlock the Tacitus and acquires a vast amount of data, allowing Cortez to provide good news to the rest of GDI command as the communication blackout ends. Meanwhile, Slavik assumes full command of Nod, making certain to continue the Brotherhood in following the visions and prophecies of Kane. Unknown to both sides, CABAL's memory feeds into a hidden cryobunker, where Kane resides, recovering from his wounds inflicted towards the end of the Second Tiberium War.

''Firestorm'' follows the events as they unfolded in the GDI ending of ''Tiberian Sun'', with its campaigns no longer structured into two competing storylines but consisting of two different narratives over the same series of events. With Nod fractured into feuding warlords following Kane's death, Anton Slavik is determined to keep Kane's ideology alive through the resurrection of Nod's highly advanced artificial intelligence, CABAL (Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform). Meanwhile, the Global Defense Initiative continues its ongoing campaign to stop the spread of Tiberium and its monstrous mutations by retrieving the extraterrestrial Tacitus device, and decides to take control of CABAL to help it decode the device (after Nod, under orders from CABAL, assassinated Tratos, leader of the Forgotten and the only other individual on Earth with the knowledge necessary to translate the Tacitus). Unbeknownst to both GDI and Nod, CABAL has two cores and intentionally allows each faction to take possession of one so that it can simultaneously manipulate both factions to do its bidding. After securing the Tacitus, CABAL goes rogue and attempts to conquer the world through the systematic assimilation of human populations into cyborg armies, forcing GDI and Nod to unite temporarily against it. Upon successfully defeating CABAL, GDI is able to recover the Tacitus and finds a large portion of it having already been translated, bringing new hope to combating Tiberium infestation; in the Nod ending, the defeated CABAL appears to merge with the consciousness of a resurrected/recovering Kane.

The newly regenerated Tenth Doctor, suffering side effects from his regeneration, crash lands the TARDIS in London. He exits to meet Jackie and Mickey, and collapses in front of them. They take him to Rose and Jackie's flat, where they put him to bed. The Doctor tells them that his regeneration has gone wrong and theorises that the energy of his regeneration is luring an unseen foe to him. He passes out again and is returned to bed.

The British-launched Mars space probe ''Guinevere One'' is intercepted by a giant rock-like spaceship heading for Earth. When the probe's broadcast is shown on Earth, the face of a Sycorax appears. He demands Earth's surrender and uses blood control to cause a third of the world's population to go into a hypnotic state. The Sycorax threatens to make these people commit suicide by jumping off high buildings, unless half of the world's population is given to the Sycorax as slaves. Harriet Jones, the Prime Minister, attempts further negotiations with the Sycorax, and finds herself teleported aboard the ship, along with her assistant Alex Klein, UNIT officer Major Thomas Blake and ''Guinevere One'' operator Daniel Llewellyn. The warlike Sycorax kill Daniel and Major Blake when they try to sue for peace.

Rose, Mickey, and Jackie evacuate the Doctor to the TARDIS as the Sycorax ship approaches London. Before Jackie can return with additional supplies, the TARDIS is detected by the Sycorax and is teleported aboard their ship. Rose buys enough time for the Doctor to finally recover, after inhaling the fumes from a dropped flask of tea, when its contents spill on TARDIS machinery. The Doctor shuts down the Sycorax blood control and then challenges the Sycorax leader to a duel for the Earth, during which the leader severs the Doctor's hand. Since the Doctor is still within the first 15 hours of regeneration, he re-grows his hand and then forces the Sycorax leader to surrender. The leader attempts to attack the Doctor from behind. Without turning round or breaking stride, the Doctor hits a sensor with a satsuma he found in his pocket, triggering part of the wing to fold and dropping the leader to his death.

The Doctor orders the Sycorax to leave Earth and never return before taking the TARDIS, Rose, Mickey, Harriet and Alex back to Earth. As the Sycorax ship moves away, Harriet orders Torchwood to destroy the ship with a salvaged alien laser. The Doctor becomes furious with Harriet, who tries to justify her actions by reminding the Doctor that he is not always there to save them. The Doctor threatens to bring down her government with six words, before whispering to Alex: "Don't you think she looks tired?"

After choosing a new outfit, which includes trainers, a pinstripe suit and a brown duster coat, the Doctor joins Rose, Jackie, and Mickey for Christmas dinner. They watch Harriet on television fending off rumours about her health, with a vote of no confidence looming.

''Sewer Shark'' takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where environmental destruction has forced most of humanity to live underground. The player takes on the role of a rookie pilot in a band of "sewer jockeys", whose job is to exterminate dangerous mutated creatures to keep a vast network of sewers clean for "Solar City", an island paradise from which the evil Commissioner Stenchler (Robert Costanzo) gives his orders and critiques. The player's copilot, Ghost (David Underwood), evaluates the player's performance throughout the game, while a small robot named Catfish (voiced by Robert Weaver) scouts ahead and gives directions. The player is later assisted by Falco (Kari G. Peyton), a female jockey who believes that there is a hidden route to the surface. Falco is later captured by Stenchler, who threatens to mutate her into one of his mindless minions. This plot is thwarted when Ghost and the player reach Solar City.

After Ben Ravencroft, a famous horror writer of whom Velma Dinkley is a huge fan, assists her and Mystery Inc. in solving a case at a museum, he invites them to his hometown, Oakhaven, Massachusetts. When they arrive, they find the town converted into a tourist attraction by Mayor Corey, with 17th-century replicas based on the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft, an ancestor of Ben's who was persecuted as a witch and executed by the Puritan townspeople in 1657. Ben disputes this, claiming that Sarah was a Wiccan who used herbal remedies to heal the less fortunate, and he has spent years searching for her medical journal to prove her innocence.

Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers are chased by the ghost of a witch. The gang is drawn to an all-female gothic rock band, The Hex Girls, led by Sally "Thorn" McKnight. Fred and Daphne see Thorn performing a ritual and are convinced the Hex Girls are witches.

The ghost witch is captured by Velma and revealed to be Mr. McKnight, Thorn's father and Oakhaven's pharmacist, and the townspeople were involved. Thorn explains the "ritual" Fred and Daphne witnessed was an herbal remedy made for soothing her vocal cords and that she is actually 1/16th Wiccan. Corey and Mr. McKnight apologize to Ben for using his ancestor in their publicity stunt. The witch was created to boost the town's failing tourist economy and they found inspiration from digging up the head marker for Sarah's grave. It is revealed that a shoe buckle Scooby had found was actually the lock from Sarah's journal.

Scooby digs and finds a box containing the buried journal, which is actually a spell book. Ben reveals that Sarah ''was'' a witch who wielded her witchcraft against the townspeople before the Wiccans used their nature-based powers to imprison her within her own spell book; his ancestry, therefore, makes him a warlock. He engineered the mystery at the museum just so he could meet with Mystery Inc., knowing they could lead him to the book, although the ghost witch wasn't part of his plan. Ben summons Sarah but discovers that she has no loyalty to him, and her ambitions are to destroy the world to avenge her imprisonment rather than rule it alongside him.

Disillusioned, Ben attempts to imprison her again but she tells him that only a Wiccan can defeat her, and traps him in a magical sphere. The gang launches an attempt to get the book while Sarah turns pumpkins and trees into monsters and enlarges a turkey in order to stop them. Daphne and Velma free the Hex Girls and the latter convinces Thorn to use her inherited Wiccan power to reimprison Sarah. The plan works, sucking her back into the book and turning the monsters she created, except for the turkey, back to normal. Refusing to return to her imprisonment alone, Sarah drags Ben into the book with her.

A burning branch then falls onto the book and incinerates it, ensuring that the Ravencrofts can never return. The gang and townsfolk celebrate their deliverance with a concert from the Hex Girls with the gang and the still giant turkey joining in on the performance.

Three sorority women at a 1957 Alabama college face the experience and difficulties of ethnic strife and integration.

In Toronto, a group of friends and family prepare for the end of the world, expected at midnight as the result of a calamity that is not explained, but which has been expected for several months. There has been panic and rioting after the imminent catastrophe was announced, but the chaos has since largely died down, with only sporadic murders, robberies, and incidents of vandalism as humanity accepts that Earth's demise is going to happen. On the last evening, Sandra’s car is vandalized by passersby while she scavenges leftovers in a supermarket, leaving her stranded. Meanwhile, Patrick meets with his extended family for a mock Christmas dinner celebration; Duncan, husband of Sandra, spends much of the day calling his customers to reassure them that their heating gas will be kept on until the very end; Craig is having sex with Lily as part of his plan to mark every sexual milestone he can think of before the end.

Patrick leaves the dinner prematurely to spend his final hours alone in his apartment. However, he unexpectedly meets Sandra at his front door. After Sandra begs him for help, Patrick reluctantly lets her in to use his phone to contact Duncan. Patrick then suggests Sandra steal a car as she leaves his apartment. Meanwhile, Craig and Mrs. Carlton are having sex, and Donna turns up the music and lets go of herself in the power company after Duncan had left.

Patrick meets his high school friend, Menzies, who is driving around to give out tickets to his concert with his cousin while Patrick and Sandra are trying to hitchhike. Later, Patrick, while visiting Craig in his apartment, convinces Craig to lend him car, despite his reluctance. After Sandra leaves, Craig tries to convince Patrick to enjoy sex in the final hours, and discloses his omnisexual approach to addressing all of his fantasies before "the end." Craig later tells Patrick that he is not belittling Patrick, but trying to inspire him to enjoy his final hours. While Patrick is leaving Craig's apartment, Craig attempts to have a homosexual affair with him, but he refuses, despite his love for Craig.

In the final hour, Duncan opens the door upon hearing a gunshot on the street only to be held hostage by Marty; in the concert that only a few people attended, Mrs. Carlton quietly walks in while Menzies plays piano poorly on the stage. Sandra is stopped by a group of protesters who block traffic and vandalize her car. Sandra then returns to Patrick's apartment. Using Patrick's phone, Sandra listens to Duncan's voicemail in which he assured his power company's customers that the gas will be running 'til the end. Upon realizing she will not reunite with Duncan, Sandra asks Patrick to join in her suicide pact which she had with Duncan. Patrick initially refuses, stating that he needs to know her more and to find a reason to love her in order to consider it, so they share their stories, slowly progressing into a serious topic: Patrick's lost loved one.

As midnight approaches, Craig meets with Donna and finds it difficult to believe that she is a virgin. Donna find herself ashamed but Craig successfully turns the situation around and they have sex. While Patrick and Sandra make their final attempt to contact Duncan, it is revealed that Duncan was killed by a mob. Patrick and Sandra both sit on the roof facing each other, listening to the song "Guantanamera," each holding a loaded pistol to the other's temple. However, as the final seconds approach, both characters, overcome with emotion, lower their pistols and slowly embrace in a kiss.

Act 1

The spellers are introduced as they enter and they sing about their anticipation of the bee ("The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"). Moderator Rona Lisa Peretti speaks privately to Olive Ostrovsky, who has not yet paid the entrance fee. She then introduces the official word pronouncer, Douglas Panch, and comfort counselor, Mitch Mahoney. Mahoney leads the spellers in the Pledge of Allegiance and Panch explains the rules ("The Spelling Rules / My Favorite Moment of the Bee 1").

The spelling bee begins. Leaf Coneybear's word is ''capybara'', which he has no idea how to spell, but he ends up spelling it correctly while in a trance. Olive is shown to be shy and reserved, a result of her largely absent parents. She has come to love spelling by reading the dictionary in her home ("My Friend, the Dictionary"). When William Barfée is called to spell for the first time, Rona describes his unusual technique – he spells the word out on the ground with his foot to get a visual before speaking it. After a few spellers get easy words, the others rant about how the element of luck makes the bee unfair ("Pandemonium"). Logainne then gets "Cystitis", and is shown studying with her two often-arguing fathers in a flashback. When Leaf is called the second time, he reminisces about how his family calls him "dumb" ("I'm Not That Smart").

Barfée is called, and sings about his technique ("Magic Foot"). When Marcy is called again, she correctly spells "qaimaqam", proving herself to be the best speller, though she is somewhat hurt when Rona claims that she is "all business". Chip Tolentino is called next, but he is reluctant to take his turn because he has an erection after fantasizing about Leaf's sister. Under threat of disqualification (a fact not help as he also gets a somewhat erotic sounding word), he misspells his word and Mitch hauls him off ("Pandemonium (Reprise) / My Favorite Moment of the Bee 2").

At this point, the last audience speller is eliminated. Mitch sings a special serenade to this audience member for making it this far ("Prayer of the Comfort Counselor").

Act 2

Chip passes through the audience selling snacks, the punishment for being the first eliminated. He explains to the audience why he lost ("My Unfortunate Erection (Chip's Lament)"). Barfée taunts Chip, who throws a bag of peanut M&M's at him. Barfée is allergic to peanuts, so Olive picks them up for him. Olive and Barfée converse before the second half of the bee begins, and Barfée begins to develop a crush on Olive.

Logainne describes her two overbearing fathers and the stress that they put on her ("Woe is Me"). In a montage sequence, the bee is shown progressing through many rounds, ending with Leaf's elimination. He walks away with his head held high, having proven to himself that he is smarter than his family gave him credit for ("I'm Not that Smart (Reprise)").

Marcy reveals more about her stressful life ("I Speak Six Languages"). She is given the word ''camouflage'', to which she sighs, "Dear Jesus, can't you come up with a harder word than that?" Jesus then appears to her and teaches her that she is in control of her own life. Resolved to do what she wants rather than what is expected of her, she intentionally misspells the word and exits excitedly ("Jesus / Pandemonium (Reprise #2)").

Olive gets a call from her father, who she has been hoping would arrive. Panch attempts to disallow her from answering the phone, but she persuades Rona to take the call for her. Logainne then begins an ad-libbed rant about the bee, her fathers, and current political events. Panch lashes out at Logainne and is escorted offstage by Rona and Mitch. One of Logainne's fathers jumps onstage to calm Logainne down and pours some of his soda on the floor to make Barfée's foot stick and thus disrupt his technique.

With Panch calmed down, Olive is called to spell. She imagines her parents being there and giving her the love that she always has wanted and yearned for ("The I Love You Song"). Barfée is called to spell next, and spells his word correctly despite the soda causing his foot to stick. Logainne misspells her next word and ("Woe is Me (Reprise)") Rona is excited that it has come down to the final two ("My Favorite Moment of the Bee 3").

The finals are shown through another montage ("Second"), and Olive and Barfée continue to grow closer. Eventually, Olive misspells a word, giving Barfée a chance to win. He is torn between winning and letting Olive win, but with Olive's encouragement, he spells his word correctly. Panch awards Barfée the trophy and two hundred dollar prize, and in a surprise act of charity, pays Olive's entrance fee, calling it a "runner-up prize." Olive congratulates Barfée, and each character reads a sentence or two about what they do in the years and decades after the main action of the play ends ("Finale").

Before the play begins, the Viceroy of Portugal rebelled against Spanish rule. A battle took place in which the Portuguese were defeated and their leader, the Viceroy's son Balthazar, killed the Spanish officer Andrea before being taken captive by the Spanish. Andrea's ghost and the personification Revenge itself are present onstage throughout the entirety of the play and serve as chorus. At the end of each act, Andrea bemoans the series of injustices that have taken place and then Revenge reassures him that those deserving will get their comeuppance. The Ghost of Andrea and Revenge open the play in Act 1 and close the play in Act 5 with descriptions of the Classical underworld. There is also a subplot concerning the enmity of two Portuguese noblemen, one of whom attempts to convince the Viceroy that his rival has murdered the missing Balthazar.

The King's nephew Lorenzo and Andrea's best friend Horatio dispute over who captured Balthazar. Though it is made clear early on that Horatio defeated Balthazar and Lorenzo has essentially cheated his way into taking partial credit, the King leaves Balthazar in Lorenzo's charge and splits the spoils of the victory between the two. Horatio comforts Lorenzo's sister, Bel-imperia, who was in love with Andrea against her family's wishes. Despite her former feelings for Andrea, Bel-imperia soon falls for Horatio. She confesses that her love for Horatio is motivated partially by her desire for revenge: Bel-imperia intends to torment Balthazar, who killed her former lover Andrea.

Meanwhile, Balthazar is falling in love with Bel-imperia. The Spanish king decides that a marriage between Balthazar and Bel-imperia would be an excellent way to repair the peace with Portugal. Horatio's father, the Marshal Hieronimo, stages an entertainment for the Portuguese ambassador. Lorenzo, suspecting that Bel-imperia has found a new lover, bribes her servant Pedringano and discovers that Horatio is the man. He persuades Balthazar to help him murder Horatio during an assignation with Bel-imperia. Hieronimo and his wife Isabella find the body of their son hanged and stabbed, and Isabella is driven mad. (Revisions made to the original play supplement the scene with Hieronimo briefly losing his wits as well.)

Lorenzo locks Bel-imperia away, but she succeeds in sending Hieronimo a letter, written in her own blood, informing him that Lorenzo and Balthazar were Horatio's murderers. Hieronimo's questions and attempts to see Bel-imperia convince Lorenzo that he knows something. Afraid that Balthazar's servant Serberine has revealed the truth, Lorenzo convinces Pedringano to murder Serberine, then arranges for Pedringano's arrest in the hopes of silencing him too. Hieronimo, appointed judge, sentences Pedringano to death. Pedringano expects Lorenzo to procure his pardon, and Lorenzo, having written a fake letter of pardon, lets him believe this right up until the hangman drops Pedringano to his death.

Lorenzo manages to prevent Hieronimo from seeking justice by convincing the King that Horatio is alive and well. Furthermore, Lorenzo does not allow Hieronimo to see the King, claiming that he is too busy. This, combined with his wife Isabella's suicide, pushes Hieronimo past his limit. He rants incoherently and digs at the ground with his dagger. Lorenzo goes on to tell his uncle, the King, that Hieronimo's odd behaviour is due to his inability to deal with his son Horatio's newfound wealth (Balthazar's ransom from the Portuguese Viceroy), and he has gone mad with jealousy. Regaining his senses, Hieronimo, along with Bel-imperia, feigns reconciliation with the murderers, and asks them to join him in putting on a play, ''Soliman and Perseda'', to entertain the court.

When the play is performed, Hieronimo uses real daggers instead of prop daggers, so that Lorenzo and Balthazar are stabbed to death in front of the King, Viceroy, and Duke (Lorenzo and Bel-imperia's father). He cast the play in such a way that both himself and Bel-imperia could exact their own revenge by actually killing the murderers. Bel-imperia chooses to stab herself during the play too, although this was not Hieronimo's intention for her. Hieronimo tells everyone of the motive behind the murders, bites out his own tongue to prevent himself from talking under torture, and kills the Duke of Castille and then himself. Andrea and Revenge are satisfied, and promise to deliver suitable eternal punishments to the guilty parties.

Part 1

Jerry is offered two free tickets from New York City to Hollywood to appear on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''. He offers one to George and they decide that while they are in Los Angeles they will track down Kramer, who headed to Los Angeles in the previous episode, "The Keys", to become an actor. Kramer has attended several auditions but without any luck.

Police are searching for "The Smog Strangler," a serial killer roaming the streets of Los Angeles. A woman Kramer met during auditions turns up dead in another part of the city with the script Kramer gave to her found on her body.

George thinks he has insightful conversations with the talk show guests Corbin Bernsen and George Wendt, but they both call him "some nut" during their subsequent interviews. Jerry can't remember the words for a joke and blames the hotel maid, Lupe, who threw his notes away while cleaning the room. As Jerry and George leave ''The Tonight Show'', they see Kramer's picture on the news. He is the prime suspect for the "Smog Strangler".

Part 2

Jerry and George try to help clear Kramer of the accusation. They use a payphone to call the police and they say they have important information regarding the stranglings. Two policemen in a cruiser come to pick them up and take them back to the station. On their way, the officers see a man trying to break into a car. They arrest him and put him in the back with Jerry and George; Jerry and the man get into an argument about tipping, with the latter insisting that Jerry's tipping habits are too cheap. They have to stop again when they get a police call regarding Kramer the "Smog Strangler" and happen to be close to the scene. Jerry and George want to make sure Kramer is not imprisoned, so they flee from the car, and, in their hurry, leave the door open. The man who had been in the back seat with them escapes.

Kramer is taken to the police station and is questioned by the lieutenant, causing Kramer to have a nervous breakdown and begin hysterically sobbing. While he is being interrogated, the lieutenant receives a phone call revealing that the Smog Strangler has killed another victim while Kramer was in custody, and so he is released. After Kramer is exonerated, Jerry and George decide to return to New York, but Kramer opts to remain in Los Angeles. However, by the end of the episode, Kramer has returned to New York and is once again living across the hall from Jerry. He offers no explanation of his return. He and Jerry return each other's spare keys as a sign that they have reconciled after their argument in "The Keys".

It is revealed that the Smog Strangler is suspected to be the man that George and Jerry accidentally allowed to escape. It is broadcast on the news that his whereabouts are unknown, but that he is a generous tipper.

''Johnno'' is written in the first person past tense and the narrator is only ever known by the nickname "Dante". ''Johnno'' is heavily autobiographical. The novel is centred upon the friendship between Dante and a schoolmate known as "Johnno" in their adolescence and early adulthood in the 1940s and 1950s in Brisbane.

The subtropical Brisbane environment and various elements of upper-class Australian culture in the twentieth century recur throughout the book. There are many references to Brisbane's verdant gardens and parklands and other aspects of its urban geography such as its now-defunct tramways and the Brisbane River.

The novel takes the form of an extended reminiscence and begins with the narrator finding a photograph of Johnno among his recently deceased father's belongings. The story then begins in Dante's childhood and education at Brisbane Grammar School and then follows the development of the friendship between the staid, conventional Dante and the unruly, eccentric and frequently intoxicated Johnno through school, university and a period of Bohemian-style living in Europe. The novel ends with Johnno presumed to have committed suicide (though the reader does not know for sure) and his funeral in suburban Brisbane.

Though both major characters reference gay experiences Malouf explicitly denies that ''Johnno'' is a gay novel.

Readers of a later and more knowing time have taken this to be a gay novel in disguise. It is not. If I had meant to write a gay novel I would have done so. If there was more to tell about these characters I would have told it. Johnno's occasional experience that way is frankly admitted, so is Dante's relationship with his "boy from Sarina", but they do not see themselves as being defined by these involvements and they are not.

Ms. Choksondik's fourth grade class goes on a field trip to a farm, where they discover that veal is made of baby cows. The boys, apart from Cartman, are horrified and decide to save the calves from becoming veal. Stan, Kyle, and Butters attempt to convince Cartman to help them rescue the calves and bring them to Stan's house. Cartman is forced to join the others to rescue the calves with his ''Mission Impossible'' Breaking and Entering play-set. When they are discovered by their parents the next morning, the boys barricade the door until they are promised the calves will be safe. Sharon refuses to lie and say they will be safe out of fear of regretting it, and Randy can not remove the door without destroying the house.

The situation quickly escalates into a standoff between the boys, who are declared terrorists, and the police. They live off some food smuggled in by Ms. Cartman, which contains meat. While most of the group eagerly eats this food, Stan does not, as his reason for doing the deed extends far beyond just protecting the calves, so he becomes a vegetarian. Cartman makes fun of this, saying "if you don't eat meat, you become a pussy." Later, Stan comes down with a strange illness, and develops sores on his face.

An FBI negotiator proves no match for Cartman's powers of manipulation, and he negotiates for guns and ammunition in return for a calf. When the boys get the guns Cartman further manipulates the negotiator for an ICBM, but unsuccessfully tries to get North and South Dakota. He gets the FDA to change the term for veal to "little tortured baby cow", and negotiates for a cattle truck driven by Michael Dorn. Furthermore, Dorn is forced into full Worf makeup and must call Cartman 'Captain'. He is to drive everyone to the airport so they can escape to Mexico, despite being reluctant to do so. All of this, without handing over a single calf. The negotiator, due to easily giving to these ludicrous demands, is eventually fired.

The FBI double-crosses the boys and the calves are returned, but are rendered useless, as there is now no market for "little tortured baby cow". Stan has to go to the hospital; it turns out Cartman was correct about the results of not eating meat when Stan's doctor explains that he has vaginitis, and the sores on his face were actually vaginas, which would have turned him into a giant vagina. The episode ends with the boys, with the possible exception of Cartman, getting grounded, but not before going out with their parents for burgers.

Having just destroyed Count Dracula, Professor Von Helsing is arrested by two Whitby policemen, Sergeant Wilkes and Constable Albert. He is taken to Scotland Yard, where he explains to Sir Basil Humphrey that he indeed did destroy Count Dracula, but because he had already been dead for over 500 years, it cannot be considered murder. Instead of hiring a lawyer, he enlists the aid of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jeffrey Garth, who was once one of his star students.

Sergeant Wilkes leaves the Whitby gaol to meet an officer from Scotland Yard at the train station. Meanwhile, Dracula's daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska, enters the gaol and mesmerises Albert with her jewelled ring and with the aid of her manservant, Sandor, steals Dracula's body from the Whitby gaol, and after tossing salt on the pyre, ritualistically burns Dracula's body, hoping to break her curse of vampirism. However, Sandor soon begins to discourage her, telling her that all that is in her eyes is "death". She soon gives in to her thirst for blood. The Countess resumes her hunting, mesmerising her victims with her exotic jewelled ring. After a chance meeting with Dr. Garth at a society party, the Countess asks him to help her overcome the influence she feels from beyond the grave. The doctor advises her to defeat her cravings by confronting them, and the Countess becomes hopeful that her will, plus Dr. Garth's science, will be strong enough to overcome Dracula's malevolence.

The Countess sends Sandor to fetch her a model to paint. He sees a pretty young woman, Lili, and follows her onto a bridge. The woman pauses at the railing looking despondent. Sandor promises her food, warmth, and money. She hesitates, but Sandor explains that he seeks her for his mistress. Lili returns with Sandor. Countess Zaleska initially resists her urges, but succumbs and attacks her. Lili survives the attack and is examined by Dr. Garth through hypnosis; she reveals enough information to let Dr. Garth know that Countess Zaleska was who attacked her, but she suffers heart failure and dies. The Countess gives up fighting her urges and accepts that a cure is not possible; she lures Dr. Garth to Transylvania by kidnapping Janet Blake, his secretary, with whom he has a playfully antagonistic relationship, but now realises that he cares for her. Zaleska intends to transform Dr. Garth into a vampire to be her eternal companion. Arriving at Castle Dracula in Transylvania, Dr. Garth agrees to exchange his life for Janet's. Before he can be transformed, Countess Zaleska is destroyed when Sandor shoots her through the heart with an arrow as revenge for her breaking her promise to make him immortal. He takes aim at Dr. Garth, but is shot dead by a Scotland Yard policeman, who along with Von Helsing, has followed Dr. Garth from London.

The story is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year AD 2151. To the inhabitants on Earth it seems like the only chance for a decent life is to fight, in a "survival of the fittest" scenario. A man named Jado finds a powerful blue fighting armor and calls himself "The Fighting King". With it, he quickly gains control of the world. Using his newfound power, he erects a tower with six guards. Many try to take Jado's power away, but they die in their attempt. Some weeks after the building of the tower, a tournament is held all over the world to see who is the strongest. Of the many fighters, only four people are chosen. Now they need to fight each other to see who is going in the tower. The plot dialogues of the Story mode and the final epilogues were excluded from the North American and European versions.

In feudal Japan, a young, nameless samurai has sworn to protect his master, Lord Ozaki, from assassins. Ozaki is assassinated at night by a demon called Agat in the guise of a geisha, in an act of revenge for Ozaki stealing his sword. The sword is powered by blood — if it can be fueled by the blood of an innocent, the sword will become powerful enough to destroy Agat. Ozaki has hidden the sword, so Agat cannot find it. The young samurai prepares to perform seppuku at his master's graveside. The spirit of Ozaki appears before him and demands that he find the sword and keep it from Agat until his skills are great enough to destroy the demon lord. The young samurai becomes a rōnin, wandering the countryside for many years. He comes to Agat's castle, and fights his way inside. Since the sword has never killed an innocent, it is not powerful enough to destroy Agat, so when Agat approaches him from behind, the ronin thrusts the sword through his own abdomen, impaling Agat. As Agat dies, he curses the ronin, and both their souls are trapped inside the sword until someone releases them.

Eight centuries later, social and economic collapse has left New York a lawless wasteland, populated by squatters, factions, and mutants. In the heart of the city is the Aquarius Complex, the headquarters of the Aquarius Corporation. The Aquarius Corporation is an idealistic company founded by three people: Peter McKenna, inventor of biocircuitry, his wife, Casey McKenna, Aquarius' head of security, and Mr. Taggart, who funded and controls Aquarius. The company is successful developing and marketing biocircuitry as a means of saving a world on the brink of war. Biocircuitry is a new model of plastics-based electronics, capable of self-organization and self-repair under the direction of Virgo, the artificial intelligence at the heart of the Aquarius Complex.

Aquarius's ward, Billy Challas, was born without any limbs due to a genetic defect and has telekinetic powers. Virgo works with him to develop his psionic abilities and Billy tests cutting-edge prosthetic limbs for Aquarius. Billy has been having vivid dreams of the story of Ozaki, the ronin, and Agat. Billy and Virgo are confused by the detail and historical accuracy of the dream since his education had never covered feudal Japan.

Back at Aquarius, Virgo explains what has occurred to Casey McKenna, who assumes Virgo's logic units have been affected, but begins an investigation anyway. Agat infiltrates the complex, where he murders Taggart and assumes his form. In this guise, Agat begins negotiating a weapons deal with the Japan-based Sawa Corporation. Peter McKenna is outraged; he had created the technology under the agreement that it would be for non-violent purposes only. He confronts Taggart and realizes that he is an impostor. He informs Virgo, who is not only unshaken by this revelation, but immediately informs Taggart, forming a pact with him. Peter infiltrates Virgo's memory bank and forces her to show him what happened to Taggart. Even with the video replay, Peter refuses to believe the story and accuses Virgo of killing Taggart. He is kidnapped and held prisoner by Agat.

Head, an aging hippie who realizes that the ronin is his ticket to security, tells the ronin that he will 'manage' him and take care of him; the ronin passively acquiesces. Head plans to sell the ronin as "The Elvis of Violence", and makes deals with the heads of both the Nazi and Black factions to kill the other faction's leader in exchange for rice, beer, sterno, and a place to sleep.

Casey McKenna gets authorization to pursue and retrieve the ronin, understanding from Virgo that Billy Challas has somehow been transformed into a killer, and that the absence of effective law enforcement means that capturing him is Aquarius' responsibility. The three man team who finds the ronin, however, is killed without hesitation. Convinced of Virgo's story, Casey seeks permission to kill the ronin. Taggart denies this when Virgo informs him that the ronin is, in fact, Billy, complete with telekinetic power and, as such, might be useful in cybernetics. Casey finds the ronin dealing with the Nazi and Black factions and, despite her orders, attempts to kill him. Casey is knocked unconscious by the two factions before she can accomplish this and is thrown into a pit. The ronin kills both faction leaders, discards Head, and goes to rescue Casey.

The pit leads into sewers infested with cannibals, who swarm and kidnap Casey and the ronin. The ronin breaks free and slaughters the cannibals. Casey is surprised to find herself falling in love with the ronin. It snows shortly thereafter, for the first time in five years, and the ronin speaks English out of the blue. Casey and the ronin sleep together in the snow.

Peter, bound and gagged, is met by therapist Sandy. Peter convinces Sandy to free him and they try to make sense of all that has occurred. Peter concludes that Virgo kept the extent of Billy's powers a secret in order to exploit them, and that Billy created the ronin based around the television programs he loved so much as a kid, using his powers to create arms and legs built for himself and control Casey. Sandy, hearing this, thinks Peter is insane, and leaves him alone with Virgo.

Robots sent by Taggart attack the ronin and Casey, removing the ronin's mechanical arms and legs. Virgo, controlling the robots, starts a mental attack on the ronin, bringing forward Billy's repressed memory of murdering a local bully. Billy, enraged, regains his limbs, but a horde of flying robots subdue him and blast the subway tunnel where Casey had been trying to make her escape. Trapped, the ronin mentally reaches out to Casey, who regains consciousness within the rubble and kills a robot. Casey breaks into Aquarius, which by this point has engulfed the entire city. The ronin causes a blackout that allows Casey to escape the guards and find Peter. Virgo forces Agat to restrain himself, and address the workers about the blackout. Virgo confronts Billy mentally. Virgo soothes Billy and convinces him to stop helping Casey.

Casey, with the help of Learnid and Sandy, whom Learnid convinces of Peter's sanity, finds Peter. A physical wreck, Peter informs Casey that Billy is being manipulated by Virgo into turning fantasy into reality. A Virgo robot attacks and kills Peter. Reinvigorated by Casey's sadness, Billy begins questioning Virgo. When Casey is attacked by another robot, Billy is enraged and lashes out, destroying it. Virgo verbally castigates Billy, threatening to send him away (as his mother did after she saw him murder the bully) if he doesn't stop. Billy backs down.

Taggart, trying to calm the workers, is confronted by Learnid who accuses him of having been corrupted. Before Taggart can attack, Virgo orders him away, stating a life-threatening hazard has occurred. Learnid notes that regulations give him authority in such situations to evacuate non-essential personnel and forces Virgo to carry out the order.

Casey runs into Peter, now a deformed half-man/half-machine, who attacks her. Peter explains that Billy's powers gave Virgo a consciousness and Virgo wanted more. In order to increase his power, while keeping him under control, she manipulated him into creating the ronin, thereby releasing his power, but trapping him in fantasy. Virgo wants to make biocircuitry the new dominant life form on Earth. Casey kills Peter and tells Virgo to take her to the ronin. Once near him, she is transported back into fantasy, and keeps playing along. Kissing the ronin, they are confronted by Agat. Casey turns to confront him but rather than taking out her sword, she shoots him in the head. Agat's wiring explodes, revealing him to be a robot.

Sensing danger, Virgo tries in vain to talk Casey out of acting, to no avail. Casey frees the ronin, then humiliates him, as a woman had avenged his master where he had failed. Casey then gives him a sword to commit seppuku while acting as his second. As the ronin guts himself, Billy cries in agony. Virgo tries to scold him to take control but Billy can't control himself, blaming Virgo for making him feel worthless. The ronin shoves the sword into his heart, Casey kills him, and Billy unleashes a telekinetic blast which destroys Aquarius, and by extension, New York. The only ones left standing are Casey and the ronin.

In 18th century France, the Marquise de Merteuil (Annette Bening), a beautiful wealthy widow, learns from her cousin Madame de Volanges (Siân Phillips) that Volanges' 15-year-old daughter Cécile (Fairuza Balk) has been betrothed to a middle-age man named Gercourt (Jeffrey Jones), Merteuil's own secret lover. The arranged marriage required that Cécile be raised in a convent to ensure her chastity. Unaware that Merteuil is Gercourt's lover, Volanges reveals that according to Gercourt, he is having trouble breaking off relations with his "former" mistress who is mentally unbalanced. Angered over the hypocrisy of Gercourt's insistence on a virgin bride while keeping a lover of his own, his concealment of his upcoming marriage, and his slight of her character, Merteuil plans revenge.

Merteuil approaches her former lover, the notorious womanizer Vicomte de Valmont (Colin Firth), and proposes that he take Cécile's virginity before her wedding night to humiliate Gercourt. Valmont is not interested in seducing a child, whom he claims would be no challenge, but is pursuing Madame de Tourvel (Meg Tilly), a married woman staying at the estate of Madame de Rosemonde (Fabia Drake), Valmont's elderly aunt. Tourvel, well known for her virtue, had been warned of Valmont's debauchery and deliberately avoids him. Merteuil makes Valmont a wager: if Valmont succeeds in bedding Madame de Tourvel, he may also bed Merteuil; if he fails, he must consign himself to a monastery.

After learning that Cécile's teenage music teacher, Danceny (Henry Thomas), has been writing love letters to Cécile, Merteuil gains the confidence of the young girl who confesses she loves Danceny. Merteuil attempts to create opportunities for the two young lovers to consummate their love, but Cécile is too innocent and Danceny too honorable to take advantage. Frustrated, Merteuil takes Cécile on holiday to Madame de Rosemonde's country estate, where Valmont had gone to pursue Tourvel. When Merteuil suggests that Valmont help Cécile write to Danceny, Valmont goes to Cécile's room to help her write a passionate letter and ends up taking her virginity. Afterwards, a guilt-wracked Cécile runs to Merteuil for comfort, believing that neither her future husband nor Danceny will want her now. Merteuil encourages the girl to marry Gercourt and keep Danceny as her lover.

When Tourvel feels her defenses weakening against Valmont, she flees to the city early next morning to escape temptation. Valmont rides to her residence and is there when she arrives. Unable to resist, Tourvel finally makes love with him. In the morning, Tourvel writes to her husband about her new lover, then leaves for the market to prepare a meal. When she returns, Valmont has already left to collect his "prize" from Merteuil.

Valmont arrives at Merteuil's residence, where Merteuil indifferently spreads herself on the bed and waits for Valmont to get on with it, causing Valmont to storm out. As revenge, he goes to Cécile and convinces her to write Danceny a letter explaining that Merteuil was behind the plan to cast Danceny as Cécile's lover instead of marrying him. Tourvel later comes to Valmont and spends the night, leaving before he wakes the next morning. Her loss causes Valmont to realize he truly cared for her. He goes to Tourvel's residence to find she has reconciled with her husband. Valmont leaves roses for Tourvel on her unkempt bed and slips out without being seen.

Valmont returns to Merteuil, but rather than insisting she keep her bargain, he proposes marriage, saying they would be better off working together than against one another. Merteuil sadly reminds him that they were married once before and that any marriage between them could only end in betrayal. Merteuil invites Valmont to her bedroom, where Danceny is in her bed; he had come to threaten Merteuil, but she seduced him and told him everything. Valmont leaves in a fury and goes to Cécile, suggesting they leave the country, so that Cécile will be free to love whom she chooses. Instead, Cécile reveals (with Merteuil also present in the house) that she has confessed everything to her mother, who orders Valmont from the house.

The next day, Danceny challenges Valmont to a duel to avenge Cécile's honor. Valmont prepares for the duel by drinking himself into a stupor and arrives hung over. The honorable Danceny refuses to duel him in his condition and is willing to accept an apology. Instead, Valmont charges Danceny with sword drawn, forcing Danceny to kill him in self-defense.

Valmont's funeral is filled with his former lovers, including Merteuil, who finds herself devastated at the loss of her best friend and oldest rival. Cécile reveals to the grieving Madame de Rosemonde that she (Cécile) is carrying Valmont's child; Rosemonde is overjoyed by the news. Cécile and Gercourt are soon married in a grand ceremony in the presence of the king, with Danceny surrounded by a pack of eligible young women and Merteuil alone, having lost Gercourt, Danceny, and Valmont.

Some time later, Madame de Tourvel lovingly places a rose on Valmont's tomb before returning to her waiting husband.

Sephiroth impales Cloud and hangs him over the reactor core. After killing the villagers of Nibelheim, Sephiroth goes to the mako reactor facility, and incapacitates Tifa and Zack. As Sephiroth reunites with Jenova, Cloud ambushes him. Sephiroth impales Cloud and escapes with Jenova. Hojo and the soldiers arrive, and take Zack and Cloud for science experimentation, during which Cloud succumbs to mako poisoning.'''Doctor:''' "I'll say it again, he's got Mako poisoning. I've never seen a case this bad...An immense amount of Mako-drenched knowledge was put into his brain all at once......"(''Final Fantasy VII'') Zack later escapes with the unconscious Cloud and is ambushed by the Shinra military en route to Midgar.

In the misty mornings of Saigon, young girls wake up to pick lotuses from a flower pond, to later sell to American tourists and fellow Vietnamese alike. To pass the time, the girls sing rich folk songs that touch the heart of a poet (Teacher Dao) who lives in an old temple overlooking the pond. Teacher Dao (Manh Cuong Tran) suffered leprosy at the age of 26 and had consequently lost his fingers.

The girls (one of them a newcomer named Kien An (Nguyen Ngoc Hiep) are trucked off to the bustling streets of Saigon where they sell the lotus in bundles for 5,000 đồng VND (roughly 30 cents USD). In Saigon, we meet different aspects of its inhabitants. Woody is a 9- to 10-year-old street peddler who sells cigarettes, chewing gum, and various other things in a box that hangs on a strap to his shoulder. Hai (Don Duong) is a cyclo driver who hangs out with his buddies near a grand hotel.

Through a chance meeting, Hai eventually falls in love with Lan (Zoe Bui) who works as a prostitute in big hotels. Even seemingly happy after receiving every American dollars from her clients, she carries a silent resentment of herself and her clients. She tells Hai that she won't be doing this job for long and dreams of sleeping in an air-conditioned room, with no one to bother her. Lan tries to embrace the capitalist invasion by re-inventing herself and though she resents the lifestyle, she promises to one day live like them. Hai respects her and sees through her pain. After winning $200 USD in a cyclo race, he treats her to her dream. Lan feels guilty and rejects Hai's advances. She feels that she is incapable and doesn't deserve Hai's special treatment. During one of the last scenes of the film, Lan finally comes to terms with herself and Hai as he takes her to a place streaming with red ''phượng vĩ'' (Royal Poinciana) blossoms. Lan, dressed in a beautiful white áo dài (traditional Vietnamese dress), marvels at her surroundings.

Hai's encounter with Kien An is a ridicule of the western embrace of "convenience". Kien An's flowers, hand-picked and real, are being driven out by mass-produced plastic flowers. Hai comments that they are even sprayed with perfume to imitate the smell. The only difference is that the plastic flowers never wilt and die. Hai wants no part in this and asks Kien An for two. Kien An respects him and gives him the lotus for free.

Kien An's tale involves various personal tragedies and how poetry can triumph and provide respite for the human soul. Teacher Dao is particularly interested in Kien An's song because it reminds him of his days as a small boy (when he was "light and pure") along the river markets. Teacher Dao also tells Kien An of a recurring dream. He dreams of being able to visit the river markets and drop white lotuses, letting them float downriver.

Kien An remarks that Teacher Dao's pain involves his inability to leave the seemingly abandoned temple. Teacher Dao corrects her and says that even though he never leaves the place, in spirit, he yearns for the songs of the birds, the scent of the lotus, and the freedom of the clouds that lazily float in the sky. In his prime, he was a successful poet. After losing his fingers to leprosy, Teacher Dao had given up hope of ever writing again. Kien An wants to help him and so she promises to lend him her fingers. From time to time, Kien An would visit his home in the temple to copy whatever the poet recites.

Soon, ill health as the result of old age and leprosy takes away the poet's life. Huy (Hoang Phat Trieu), Teacher Dao's headman, carries out one of his final wishes and gives Kien An Dao's poetry book, which contains a never-before seen picture of Dao. The two remarks that he was very handsome before being overtaken by leprosy. Kien An asks Huy for help to make the late Dao's dream come true. She visits the river market and drops lotus flowers, just like in Dao's dream.

James Hager is an American G.I. who returns to Vietnam to look for his daughter, in hope of "coming to peace with this place". Hai and his buddies jokingly say that Hager probably lost a few screws in his head. They witness him sitting in front of a hotel for weeks, smoking, staring at a restaurant across the street. They watch him with curiosity but never approach him. His story ends with him meeting his daughter. He gives her a bundle of lotus buds he has bought from Kien An and tries to talk with her.

Through these intertwining tales, Tony Bui is able to portray the struggles of a vanishing culture. Kien An represents the country's old ways, living as if untouched by time. Lan represents the country's present, re-inventing herself and hoping to embrace the capitalist invasion. Hai (the cyclo driver) acts as a bridge between the past and the present, living care-free yet observing the "improvements" of westernization with a silent resentment. Woody, the young peddler, acts as the country's future, naïve, innocent, and easily fooled. Woody's story ends with him playing soccer with his friends in the rain.

On a dark, rainy morning at Westgate Prison, prisoners crammed into a small cell to watch through the window as Joe Collins returns from his term in solitary confinement. Joe is angry and talks about escape. The beleaguered warden is under pressure to improve discipline. His chief of security, Capt. Munsey, is a sadist who manipulates prisoners to inform on one another and create trouble so he can inflict punishment. The often drunk prison doctor warns that the prison is a powder keg and will explode if they are not careful. He denounces Munsey's approach and complains that the public and government officials fail to understand the need for rehabilitation.

Joe's attorney visits and tells Joe his wife Ruth is not willing to have an operation for cancer unless Joe can be there with her. He takes his revenge on fellow inmate Wilson, who at Munsey's instigation had planted a weapon on Joe that earned him a stay in solitary. Joe has organized a fatal attack on Wilson in the prison machine shop but provides himself with an alibi by talking with the doctor in his office while the murder occurs.

Joe presses another inmate, Gallagher, to help him escape but Gallagher has a good job at the prison newspaper and Munsey has promised him parole soon. Munsey then instigates a prisoner's suicide, giving higher authorities the opportunity to revoke all prisoner privileges and cancel parole hearings. Gallagher feels betrayed and decides to join Joe's escape plan. Joe and Gallagher plan an assault on the guard tower where they can get access to the lever that lowers a bridge that controls access to the prison.

While the escape plan is taking shape, each of the inmates in cell R17 tells their story, and in every case, their love for a woman is what landed them in trouble with the law. Munsey learns the details of the escape plan from an informer, "Freshman" Stack, one of the men in cell R17, and the break goes badly. The normally subdued prison yard turns into a violent and bloody riot, killing Munsey, Gallagher, and the remainder of the inmates in cell R17, including Joe.

Somewhere in the universe, the Goddess Antowas created a world from a single jewel. On this world, Quartalia, she created the sky, earth, and air. To inhabit this world, she created two humans: from a green jewel, a girl, Leda, who has the power to make things live on Quartalia; and from a red Jewel, a boy, Astal, whose purpose was to protect Leda. Content with her creation, Antowas slept.

While she slept, the evil Jerado tried to take over Quartalia. To ensure victory, Jerado created a warrior: Geist. Geist kidnapped Leda, and held her at the bottom of the ocean. In an effort to get her back, Astal tore Quartalia apart, awakening Antowas. As punishment, Antowas banished Astal to Quartalia's moon. Leda took pity on Astal, and gave him her jewel. Once Astal and Jerado were dealt with, Antowas went back to sleep.

However, Geist was still free, and Quartalia was not restored from the changes Jerado wrought. From his prison on the moon, Astal witnessed Geist kidnap Leda again. Consumed with the need to protect her, he freed himself and returned to Quartalia. Now Astal journeys in search of Leda through a Quartalia transformed by Jerado's dark design, along with a strange bird who for some reason just won't leave him alone...

On the eve of his 20th anniversary as school principal, Seymour Skinner is lured by his mother to Springfield Elementary School for a surprise party. The celebration goes well until a strange man arrives, claiming to be the real Seymour Skinner. Principal Skinner admits that he is an impostor, and that his real name is Armin Tamzarian. Armin then tells the story of the events that led him to steal Seymour Skinner's identity.

Armin was once a troubled young man from Capital City who enlisted in the Army in order to avoid a jail sentence for petty crimes (although an alternative included merely apologizing to his victims). There, he met and befriended the real Sergeant Seymour Skinner, who became his mentor and helped him find meaning in his troubled life. Seymour told Armin that his dream was to become an elementary school principal in Springfield after the war. Later, Seymour was declared missing and presumed dead. Armin took the news of the apparent death to Seymour's mother, Agnes. Upon meeting him, however, Agnes mistook him for her son, and Armin could not bear to deliver the message. He instead allowed Agnes to call him Seymour, and took over Seymour's life. Meanwhile, the real Seymour Skinner spent five years in a POW camp, then worked in a Chinese sweatshop for two decades until it was shut down by the United Nations.

After these revelations, the people of Springfield begin to distrust Armin, who decides that there is no longer any place for him in Springfield and leaves for Capital City, sadly breaking up with Edna Krabappel in the process. Having planned to resume his old persona as a no-good street thug, Armin still maintains his demeanour as Skinner. The real Skinner is then offered the chance to realize his dream and take over as school principal. He takes the job, but finds himself isolated by the townspeople, who realize they prefer Armin to him. With the real Skinner refusing to take up Armin's old hobbies and leading a more independent life away from home, Agnes realizes she misses having Armin as a son.

The Simpson family heads to Capital City with Edna and Agnes to find Armin at his apartment. After Agnes orders Armin to return home, expressing that he is more of a real son to her than the real Skinner is, Homer persuades Mayor Quimby and all the other citizens to allow Armin to resume his assumed identity as Principal Skinner. The real Skinner is unhappy about this and refuses to give up his job and his dignity just because the people of Springfield prefer Armin to him. In response, the townspeople banish the real Skinner from town by tying him to a chair on a flatcar of a freight train (literally running him out of town on a rail). Judge Snyder declares that Armin will again be referred to as Seymour Skinner, that he will return to his job as school principal, and that no one shall ever again refer to Skinner or the fallout from his visit, under penalty of torture.

The film centers around the Borgen family in rural Denmark during the autumn of 1925. The devout widower Morten, patriarch of the family, prominent member of the community, and patron of the local parish church, has three sons. Mikkel, the eldest, who has no faith, is happily married to the pious Inger, who is pregnant with their third child. Johannes, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit studying Søren Kierkegaard, believes himself to be Jesus Christ and wanders the farm. He condemns the age's lack of faith, including that of his family and of the modern-minded new pastor of the village. The youngest son, Anders, is lovesick for the daughter of the leader of a local Inner Mission sect.

Anders confesses to Mikkel and Inger that he loves Anne Petersen, the daughter of Peter the Tailor. They agree to convince Morten to assent to the match. Later, Inger attempts to convince Morten to allow Anders to marry Anne. Morten angrily refuses, but changes his mind when he finds out Peter has refused Anders' proposal. Morten and Anders go to meet Peter, in order to negotiate the betrothal.

Morten tries to convince Peter to permit the marriage, but he continues to refuse unless Morten and Anders join his sect. As the discussion collapses into sectarian bickering, Morten receives a call announcing that Inger has gone into a difficult labor. Peter says he hopes Inger will die, as maybe then Morten will see the error of his ways and join Peter's sect. Furious at Peter's comments, Morten attacks Peter and storms out with Anders, the two of them rushing home. While the doctor cannot save the baby, he is able to save Inger's life. After the doctor and pastor leave, Johannes angers his father by telling him that death is nearby and will take Inger, unless Morten has faith in him. Morten refuses to listen and, as prophesied, Inger dies suddenly.

While preparing to go to Inger's funeral, Peter realizes that he has wronged Morten terribly, and reconciles with him over Inger's open coffin, agreeing to permit Anne and Anders to marry. Johannes suddenly interrupts the wake, approaches Inger's coffin, and proclaims that she can be raised from the dead if the family will only have faith and ask God to do so. Inger's daughter takes Johannes (again, inspired by the Holy Spirit)' hand and impatiently asks him to raise her mother from the dead. Johannes praises her childlike faith and asks God to raise Inger, who begins to breathe and twitch in her coffin. Seeing what seems to be the miracle of resurrection, both Morten and Peter rejoice, forgetting their religious differences. As Inger sits up, Mikkel embraces her and proclaims that he has finally found faith.

In a small town of southern Japan, Sakutaro "Saku" Matsumoto and Aki Hirose, classmates since junior high, become high school students. During this time they begin to date and their conversations circle around the idea of what love really is, beginning after Saku's grandfather shares his own past love story with Saku.

After a trip the two take to an abandoned island, Aki discovers she has leukemia, which limits her chances to go outside or see Saku. Once Saku learns the truth, he buys flight tickets to take Aki to Australia's Uluru (Ayers Rock); a place she had always wanted to visit after missing the school trip there, but she dies before she could board the plane.

The story takes place as a flashback through Saku's eyes as he and Aki's parents travel to Australia to spread Aki's ashes in the place she had always wanted to see.

In 1940, American-built North American Harvard training aircraft are flown to the border with Canada, where they are towed across the frontier for use by Britain. (The procedure is necessary to avoid violating the Neutrality Acts, as the United States is still neutral.) Cocky American pilot Tim Baker (Tyrone Power) decides to fly across the border to Trenton, Ontario, and winds up in trouble with the military authorities, unconvincingly claiming he was looking for Trenton, New Jersey. Baker ferries a Lockheed Hudson bomber to Britain, pocketing $1,000 for his work.

In London, he runs into his on-again off-again girlfriend Carol Brown (Betty Grable), who works in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force by day and stars in a nightclub by night. She is none too pleased to see him, calling him a "worm" for his womanizing ways, lying, and long absence, but he is confident she still harbors strong feelings for him.

He decides to enlist in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Meanwhile, Brown attracts the appreciative attention of two RAF officers, Wing Commander John Morley (John Sutton) and Flying Officer Roger Pillby (Reginald Gardiner). Morley persists in seeing Brown, despite being told at the outset that there is another man. Pillby is unable to persuade either Baker or Morley to introduce him.

After completing training, Baker is disappointed to be assigned to Morley's bomber squadron, rather than one equipped with fighters. He becomes further disgruntled when his first mission is to "bomb" Berlin with propaganda leaflets as Morley's co-pilot during the Phoney War. Pillby pilots another bomber in the raid.

When Baker is late for their date (sidetracked by meeting an old buddy from America), Brown accepts Morley's invitation to spend a weekend at his country estate. There, Morley asks her to marry him. When she tells Baker about it (without revealing who her suitor is), he offers to marry her himself, but in an insultingly casual way. She tells him that they are through. Back at the base, the two rivals learn of each other's involvement with the same woman. Before they can do anything about it, however, the Germans invade the Netherlands and Belgium, and they are given an urgent mission to bomb Dortmund, Germany, this time with real ordnance.

During the nighttime raid, their bomber is hit, disabling one of their two engines. Pillby descends to their aid, knocking out searchlights, but is shot down in flames and perishes. Morley orders his crew to bail out, but Baker disobeys and lands the aircraft on a Dutch beach. Spotting a line of advancing German soldiers, they hide in a nearby building, only to be taken prisoner by a German officer there. A crewman sacrifices himself, enabling the other two to dispatch the German and escape by motorboat.

Baker wakes up in a British hospital, the victim of exposure. Once discharged, he goes to see Brown, pretending to have a broken arm, but shows himself to be a liar once more. Nonetheless, he produces an engagement ring and forces it onto her finger. After receiving a telephone call from Morley breaking their date, Brown informs Baker that all leaves have been canceled.

Reserves are called up to make up fighter pilot losses, and Baker is reassigned to a Spitfire for the Battle of Dunkirk. He downs two ''Luftwaffe'' fighters before being shot down. Carol cannot hide her distress when she cannot find out whether he is alive or not. Morley takes her to the docks, where ships returning from the Dunkirk beaches are bringing back survivors. When Baker debarks, Carol rushes to him and shows him she is still wearing his ring.

In the town of Elkerton, Marvin Mange is an awkward, clumsy nice-guy who dreams of being a police officer like his dad was. He continuously fails the physical test to become a full-fledged police officer, is mistreated by sleazy police sergeant Doug Sisk, and he awkwardly fumbles through a first encounter with his idol, environmental protester Rianna. He works in the police station as an evidence clerk and is friends with airport security guard Miles who is a victim of "reverse racism" and fellow cadet Fatty. While alone at the station, he receives a robbery call from a restaurant. He takes the call and drives off the road, tumbling down a mountain. A boulder falls on the car.

Days later, Marvin returns to his normal life with no memory of what happened. He is full of life while not noticing surgical marks on his back and fur on his rear end. He can outrun horses, mean dogs are scared of him, he jumps to catch frisbees in his mouth, and he does not need his asthma medicine. He thinks it is due to his consumption of "Badger Milk", which is guaranteed in the ads to make him stronger.

He goes to the airport to talk to Miles about his problem. While there, Marvin sniffs out a man hiding heroin in his rectum. Marvin is declared a hero and is made a full-fledged police officer by Chief Marion Wilson.

Marvin often wakes up in strange places, and subsequently hears about animal attacks that occurred in the middle of the night. Because of these attacks, the mad scientist Dr. Wilder believes that Marvin is out of control. Wilder takes him to his laboratory, and explains about the grafts and transplants that saved Marvin's life and gave him animal powers. He gives him pointers on controlling the rampant animal urges that often prompt him to behave inappropriately in public.

Despite continuing embarrassments caused by Marvin's animal urges, his animal abilities allow him to excel as a police officer. He is partnered with Sisk, and gets a date with Rianna.

Chief Wilson questions Marvin about late-night attacks on cows because one of the witnesses made a police sketch and it looks like Marvin. Chief Wilson puts Marvin on paid leave.

Rianna goes to Marvin's house, where he has barricaded himself inside. She is convinced that he cannot be behind the animal attacks. They spend the night together. Marvin insists on being tied up so he cannot hurt anyone, but Rianna unties him after he falls asleep. The police show up to arrest Marvin for an attack on a hunter that night. Rianna convinces him to run. Marvin escapes to the woods. The police organize a search party to capture Marvin. While running through the woods, Marvin finds Wilder. The scientist tells him that another patient of his is out of control.

Sgt. Sisk confronts Marvin and is about to shoot him. Rianna jumps from a tree onto Sisk. In the presence of Wilder, Miles, and Fatty, she confesses that she was also operated on by Wilder and attacked the hunter in order to protect the turkey vulture that she released into the wild. An angry mob and police arrive to take out Marvin. Miles takes the blame for everything. Once the mob thinks a black man was responsible, the mob members don't want to take action causing Chief Wilson to call off the hunt much to the dismay of Miles.

One year later, Marvin and Rianna get married, open an animal sanctuary, and have a litter of children. While watching television, they see Dr. Wilder win the Nobel Prize. He says he owes it all to his fiancée Yolanda, the spokesmodel for Badger Milk. There are large scars on her back, implying that Wilder performed the experiment on her as well.

Wallace "Wally" Karew (Richard Pryor), a blind man, and David "Dave" Lyons (Gene Wilder), a deaf man, meet when Wally applies for a job in Dave's New York City concession shop.

After a brief period of confusion and antagonism, Wally and Dave become close friends. Dave reads lips and guides Wally when they travel, and Wally tells Dave about invisible sources of sound and what people say behind his back. At a local bar, Wally defeats an aggressive bully in a fistfight with assistance from Dave, who uses clock-face directions to tell Wally where his opponent is. Dave hires Wally.

One morning, as Wally waits outside for the day's newspapers, a man walks into Dave's shop. When the man is approached by a beautiful woman named Eve (Joan Severance), he quickly removes a gold coin from a suitcase and places it in a box of coins sitting on the counter. The woman takes the suitcase and shoots the man in the stomach as Dave - whose back is turned - reads the information on a box of antacid pills. Dave neither sees nor hears the shooting, but he notices Eve's legs as she leaves the shop. Wally, who heard the gunshot, walks into the shop and trips over the man's dead body. Dave then rushes to help Wally and picks up the gun, which Eve left at the scene. When the police arrive, they find Dave and Wally standing over the body with Dave holding the gun. Before they are arrested, Dave tells Wally to collect the coins from the box.

At the police station, Dave and Wally are interrogated by Captain Emile Braddock (Alan North), a detective who immediately takes a dislike to them and makes them his prime suspects due to their relative uselessness as witnesses. When Eve and her accomplice Kirgo (Kevin Spacey) - hoping to recover the coin - arrive to bail them out by posing as attorneys, Wally recognizes Eve's perfume and Dave recognizes her legs, but Braddock ignores them when they insist that she is the killer. Wishing to avoid Eve and Kirgo when they are released, Dave and Wally escape from the police station, but the criminals soon find them. Eve takes the coin from Wally's pocket and telephones her boss Mr. Sutherland (Anthony Zerbe) for instructions, allowing Dave to learn the criminals' plans by reading her lips. When Kirgo tries to kill Dave and Wally, they use the fistfighting method they learned in the bar to knock him unconscious. They then steal an unattended police car, and drive away with Eve, Kirgo and Braddock chasing them. Working together to guide the patrol car, Dave and Wally evade both the police and the criminals, but they accidentally launch the car onto a waterborne garbage barge.

After hiding the police car, the two men walk to a motel and telephone Wally's sister Adele (Kirsten Childs) for help. The police follow Adele and search her motel room, but she, Wally, and Dave avoid detection, and they drive away after the police have left. Having incorrectly read Eve's lips, Dave believes they need to find a woman named "Grace George", but Adele realizes that Eve must have been referring to a resort called "Great Gorge". At the resort Wally impersonates a visiting professor. Meanwhile, Dave sneaks into the resort room to steal the coin from Eve. While Dave is digging through her bag Eve comes out of the shower wearing only a towel. Dave gets a huge erection and Eve mistakes it for a gun. Realizing this, Dave makes Eve raise her hands and drop the towel leaving her completely naked. Dave then looks Eve over and slips out of the room. Meanwhile, Adele distracts Kirgo by crashing her car into his. However, Kirgo and Eve kidnap Adele and take her to Sutherland's estate.

After a mishap with the car, Dave and Wally put their rescue plan into action, with the result that Adele escapes but the two men are captured. In his study, Sutherland – who is also blind – reveals that the coin is a room-temperature superconductor, which is extremely valuable. Kirgo and Sutherland are killed during an argument over sharing the profits from the coin's theft, after which Dave and Wally escape the study and have a violent altercation with Eve and her helicopter pilot. When the police arrive, the remaining criminals are arrested, and Wally and Dave are released having been cleared of the charges. Dave promises to wait for Eve when she gets out of prison. Shortly thereafter, the two men go to a local park and reprise a scene from the beginning of the film by dumping ice-cream cones on each other's head, enjoying each other's company.

Ray Hughes and Danny Costanzo are two police officers working on Chicago's North Side, known for their wisecracking demeanors and unorthodox police methods, which get results in their various cases. One such case involves trying to bust up-and-coming drug dealer Julio Gonzales. After arresting Snake, one of Julio's associates, they convince him to wear a wire in order to get the necessary evidence to put Julio away. When they approach the meeting place (a cargo ship) they find that Gonzales has acquired a large store of Israeli Uzi submachine guns. Snake is setting the detectives up, however, prompting the detectives to rush in by acting as though Gonzales was preparing to kill him. Gonzales reveals his ambition to be the next "godfather" of Chicago, but chastises Snake for letting the detectives get close, and Snake is shot dead by a subordinate. The pair look as though they will be killed for sure, but two undercover detectives in Julio's gang step in to make the arrest. In the ensuing gun battle, most of Julio's gang escape, but Ray and Danny capture Gonzales.

Back at the station Ray and Danny expect to be praised, but instead their captain chastises them for their sloppy work (as revealed by Snake's wire) and orders them to take a vacation. On vacation in Key West, Florida, the pair begin to question their career choice after the experience and decide to retire and open a bar.

When they return to Chicago and inform the captain of their intentions, they find out that Gonzales has been released and is free on bail. Incensed, they vow to capture Gonzales before retiring, but by being a little more careful in the process. To add insult to injury, Captain Logan assigns them the additional task of training their replacements before they go. They must train detectives Anthony Montoya and Frank Sigliano, none other than the two undercover officers who saved them from being killed in the Gonzales bust.

During one of the attempts to capture Gonzales, Ray and Danny confiscate a large shipment of cocaine coming from Colombia. In order to get them back, Gonzales kidnaps Danny's ex-wife Anna, whom he still loves and has been trying to reconcile with, and says he will trade her for his drugs; otherwise, he will kill her. Danny agrees, leading to the final confrontation inside the high-rise atrium of the State of Illinois Center. During the ensuing fight, Danny and Ray rescue their would-be protégés in a way similar to their own rescuing, and Gonzales is killed. Anna and Danny reconcile and he and Ray decide not to retire after all.

Following the theft of Will's (Eric McCormack) laptop computer, detective Gavin Hatch (Michael Douglas) assures Will he will do everything he can to get his laptop back. Upon meeting Will, Gavin becomes attracted to him. Instead of asking him out on a date, due to fear of rejection, Gavin makes up an elaborate story that Will's laptop theft was part of a "gay laptop-theft ring." Meanwhile, at Grace Adler Designs, Grace (Debra Messing) is showing some designs to a potential client, Vince (Barry Livingston). He is fond of her work and would like to become her client, but reveals that he promised another designer he would listen to her ideas too. Grace becomes horrified when she learns that her kleptomaniac neighbor and nemesis, Val (Molly Shannon), is the other designer.

Meanwhile, Will and Gavin go undercover at a gay nightclub. Will believes they are doing police business for the "gay laptop-theft ring", but it is actually a date planned by Gavin. Jack (Sean Hayes), a friend of Will's, sees the two dancing and is dumbfounded. Jack and Gavin attend the same gay therapy group, and the two dislike one another, which leads Jack to tell Will all he knows about Gavin. At Will's apartment, Gavin reveals to Will that he is gay, after Will admits to having a liking to him, but that he is "barking up the wrong tree." Will, however, identifies Gavin's problem with asking men out and his knack of making stories up to spend time with them. Before Gavin leaves, Will tells him to face his fears.

At Grace Adler Designs, Val suggests she and Grace integrate their presentations in the same meeting with Vince, to which Grace agrees. In the middle of Grace's presentation, Val begins repeating the same thing Grace says. This leads to the two bickering, which prompts Karen (Megan Mullally), Grace's friend and socialite assistant, to pull them apart. She tells them that violence is never the answer, "but sometimes it is," then chops Val behind the neck, rendering Val unconscious. Karen tells Grace to go get Vince, who was out of the room, while she gets "rid" of Val's body.

Chimo (played by Mohammed Khouas) is a nineteen-year-old self-described loser who lives in an Arab ghetto with his mother in post-9/11 Marseille. Unemployed, he turns down an opportunity to study (free of charge) at a writers' school for teenagers in Paris despite showing real promise as a writer. Instead, he wastes his day hanging around with other unemployed and aimless "losers". He falls for Lila (Vahina Giocante), a beautiful blonde sixteen-year-old who just moved into the neighborhood with her eccentric and sexually abusive aunt. Lila is a self-styled "bad girl" who presents an overtly sexual persona; they begin a tentative romance after Lila invites him to look up her skirt while she rides a swing.

Meanwhile, Mouloud (Karim Ben Haddou), Chimo's best friend and leader of their band of friends, also sets his sights on Lila. He begins to sexually harass Lila, not allowing her to walk the streets of the neighborhood unmolested. Chimo's disgust at Mouloud's behaviour towards Lila creates a huge rift between them. Mouloud, resentful of Chimo's changing attitude toward him and Lila's sexual indifference, vents his aggressions by attacking Lila and her aunt at home and raping Lila. Chimo is broken when he discovers Lila was in fact still a virgin, despite her stories of outrageous sexual adventures. This is confirmed by finding her scrapbook showing the sources of the titillating, but fictional, stories she told him. Lila is taken away by her aunt, leaving Chimo heartbroken. He eventually manages to convince a police detective to let him telephone Lila, whereupon he simply says "I love you" and she says "I know". As he remembers his experiences with Lila, he writes about them, winning the writing scholarship he scorned earlier, ultimately changing his life, allowing him to escape the poverty of his home city and to study among the best in Paris. Lila changed Chimo's world, as he did hers.

Brooke McQueen (Leslie Bibb) and Sam McPherson (Carly Pope), students at Jacqueline Kennedy High School, are polar opposites. Brooke is a popular cheerleader and Sam is an unpopular reporter for the school newspaper. Their respective groups are forced to socialize when Brooke's father and Sam's mother get engaged and the two girls have to share a house.

The plot of the first season revolves around the girls' school life, rival groups of friends, mutual animosity and plan to separate their parents. At the end of the season, Sam finds Brooke's real mother and encourages her to come back to town, which breaks up the engagement and splits the new family apart.

By the second season, Brooke and Sam realize that their parents were happy together, and therefore team up to reunite them, a move which results in the girls slowly becoming close friends, and even referring to each other as "family", though tensions rise when they both get involved with the same boy. Also, a reversal of fortunes takes place, with Brooke resigning from cheerleading to focus on her studies, and Sam experiencing a surge of sudden popularity at school. In the end of the second-season finale – which turned out to be the unexpected series finale when the show was cancelled – Brooke is run over by a drunk and angry Nicole Julian (Tammy Lynn Michaels).

The story takes place at an unknown time and place on Earth. God has commanded all angels to serve alongside humans on the Earth, but one angel named Mephisto has refused to obey this order, claiming that he takes orders from God alone. For this, Mephisto is expelled from heaven. God eventually decides to give Mephisto one chance: If Mephisto can claim the soul of God's favorite man, an alchemist and scholar named Ariel, then can he return to heaven. If not, then Mephisto will be condemned to hell forever. (Prologue) Mephisto agrees and searches for Ariel.

Meanwhile, Ariel is introduced, and he begins to ponder his research on the true meaning of life and why God created humans. (Center of the Universe) He concludes that neither science nor religion can truly answer these questions. Feeling restless, he decides to leave his home country to search for answers. He bids his farewell to everyone, including his lover Helena, as he departs on a quest for answers, vowing never to return. (Farewell) Years pass as Ariel searches. He becomes addicted to drugs, (Interlude I: Opiate Soul) and eventually turns to the occult, during which he sees a brief vision of Mephisto. (The Edge of Paradise) He begins to think of Helena, whom he misses greatly, while aimlessly walking through the wilderness, regretting his decision to leave. (Wander) He gives up his search and decides to commit suicide, believing that he will never find the answers he is looking for. (Interlude II: Omen) But before Ariel has the chance, Mephisto arrives and proposes a deal: Mephisto will help Ariel in his search for the questions, and fulfill all his worldly desires; in return, Mephisto will claim Ariel's soul when he dies. (Descent of the Archangel) Ariel is then mysteriously transported to Mephisto's castle, (Interlude III: At the Banquet) where the fallen angel throws a feast in his honor. At the feast, Ariel agrees to Mephisto's contract, but with one modification: Mephisto can only claim Ariel's soul if Ariel experiences joy so sublime that he wishes to live forever in that moment. Mephisto begrudgingly accepts this deal. (A Feast for the Vain)

After leaving Mephisto's castle, Ariel is found by Helena, who has been searching for him over the years since he left. Ariel is shocked and overjoyed. (On the Coldest Winter Night) Ariel and Helena sleep together, and a child is conceived, unbeknownst to both of them. After spending some time with Helena, Ariel decides to leave and continue his search for the truth. With the newfound power that Mephisto has provided him, he feels that the answers are within his grasp. Ariel tells Helena of his intent to go, saying that, while he loves her, "love means nothing to me, if there is a higher place to be." (Lost & Damned) After Ariel leaves, Helena is heartbroken and, vowing that she will continue to love Ariel even in death, drowns herself in a river, also unknowingly killing her unborn child. Both are brought to heaven at the plea of the river spirit. (Helena's Theme) Helena's body is then discovered, and a town crier announces her suicide. (Interlude IV: Dawn) After learning of Helena's suicide and pregnancy, Ariel becomes increasingly upset and weeps at the river where Helena died. (The Mourning After (Carry On))

Consumed with grief, Ariel questions whether he should continue his quest. He blames both God and himself for Helena's death, but Mephisto encourages Ariel to continue his journey, claiming that human emotion will ultimately be their demise, calling it a curse. In Ariel's weakened state, Mephisto's influence over him grows, and he agrees to continue his quest. Helena watches him from heaven. (Ill Ways to Epica)

Ariel's story continues in ''The Black Halo''.

The story takes place in Gibraltar, and is based on a local legend: if the resident Barbary apes were ever to leave, the British would lose Gibraltar. This wartime comedy has Terry-Thomas as the keeper of the apes. When one of the apes goes missing, he is required to go behind enemy lines to capture another one, or be personally responsible for the loss of Gibraltar.

''Neutopia'' takes place in the distant past in the land of Neutopia – a prosperous and peaceful land in which the people worshipped at a Sacred Shrine and were watched over by Princess Aurora.Instruction manual, p. 1. The land was divided into four contiguous areas called spheres: land, subterrain, sea, and sky. The people lived in prosperity and happiness with the help of eight spiritual medallions which were controlled by the Princess and were used for good;''Neutopia'', land sphere. "'''Man''': Evil is everywhere now that Dirth has captured the powers of the medallions. Under the Princess' control the medallion's power was put only to good use. Our country prospered from the wealth and happiness that the medallions gave us. Now Dirth controls that power and he will undoubtedly use it to fulfill his own evil ends." a "Climactic Castle" was built as a symbolization of their prosperity. Each of the medallions represented powers of an ancestor whom Neutopia's nemesis, the evil demon Dirth, turned to stone but whose spirit remains.

Then, one night, Dirth appears and invades the land. He sends his army of demons to ravage the land, and he captures Princess Aurora and holds her captive in the Climactic Castle, where he would rule over the invading demons. He also steals the eight medallions, which he now controls for evil purposes; he scatters the eight medallions across the four spheres and places them in crypts. A young warrior named Jazeta arrives at the Sacred Shine, where he is given a "charmed compass" which "has the force of the medallions" and can guide him to them. He is also told that he would inherit the wisdom of his ancestors and win the Princess' love if victorious. Jazeta then ventures out to defeat Dirth and rescue Princess Aurora, so that she can free Dirth's spell over the ancient ancestors' spirits and use the medallions to restore peace to Neutopia.

Scientist Dr. Russell Marvin and his new bride Carol are driving to work when a flying saucer appears overhead. With no proof of the encounter other than a tape recording of the ship's sound, Dr. Marvin is hesitant to notify his superiors. He is in charge of Project Skyhook, an American space program that has already launched ten research satellites into orbit. General Hanley, Carol's father, informs Marvin that many of the satellites have since fallen back to Earth. Marvin admits that he has lost contact with all of them and privately suspects alien involvement. The Marvins then witness the 11th falling from the sky shortly after launch.

When a saucer lands at Skyhook the next day, a group of aliens in metallic suits exit, and the infantry guards open fire, killing one alien, while others and the saucer are protected by a force field. The aliens proceed to kill everyone at the facility but the Marvins; General Hanley is captured and taken away in the saucer. Too late, Russell discovers and decodes a message on his tape recorder: the aliens wanted to meet with Dr. Marvin and landed in peace at Skyhook for that purpose but they were instead met with violence.

Marvin contacts the aliens by radio and sneaks away to meet them, followed closely by Carol and Major Huglin. They and a pursuing motorcycle patrol officer are taken aboard a saucer, where the aliens extract knowledge directly from the general's brain. The aliens explain that they are the last of their species, having fled from their destroyed solar system. They are extremely aged and are kept alive only by their protective garments. They have shot down all the launched satellites, fearing them as weapons. As proof of their power, the aliens give Dr. Marvin the coordinates of a naval destroyer that opened fire on them, and which they have since destroyed. Horrified by the cold, unempathic nature of the aliens, Carol begins to break down, and the patrol officer, despite an attempt by Marvin to stop him, pulls his revolver and fires on the aliens; the aliens subject him to the same mind control process as General Hanley. The aliens state that they will eventually return Hanley and the patrol officer. As the interaction continues, Carol becomes increasingly irrational, while Marvin tries to remain calm. Major Huglin and the Marvins are released with the message that the aliens want to meet with the world's leaders in 56 days in Washington, D.C. to negotiate an occupation of Earth.

Dr. Marvin's later observations lead to the discovery that the aliens' protective suits are made of solidified electricity and grant them enhanced auditory perception. Marvin develops a counter-weapon against their flying saucers, which he later successfully tests against a single saucer. As they escape, the aliens jettison Hanley and the patrol officer, who fall to their deaths. Groups of alien saucers then attack Washington, Paris, London, and Moscow, but are destroyed by Dr. Marvin's sonic weapon. The defenders also discover that the aliens can be easily killed by small arms gunfire when they are outside the force fields of their saucers. Upon repelling the attack and no further threats anticipated, Project Skyhook is reestablished with Dr. Marvin once again placed in charge.

Reverend Leonard Clement, the vicar of St Mary Mead, narrates the story. He lives with his much younger wife Griselda and their nephew Dennis. Colonel Lucius Protheroe, Clement's churchwarden, is a wealthy, abrasive man who also serves as the local magistrate, and is widely disliked in the village. At dinner one evening, Clement offhandedly remarks that anyone who killed Protheroe would be doing the world a favour.

One day Clement encounters Protheroe's wife, Anne, embracing Lawrence Redding, a young visiting artist; while promising them that he will not reveal their affair, he advises Redding to leave the village at once. The next day, Clement is scheduled to meet with Protheroe to go over irregularities in the church accounts. Clement is called away to a farm to visit a dying parishioner, but learns that the man has recovered, and that nobody actually asked for him. Upon returning home, Clement encounters a distressed Redding at the gate to the vicarage, then discovers Colonel Protheroe dead at the writing desk in his study. He summons Dr Haydock, who pronounces that Protheroe was killed by a gunshot to the back of the head.

The police, led by Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack, are confounded by several details, including a note left by Protheroe that seems to conflict with Haydock's opinion of the time of death, and some witnesses claiming to have heard a second shot. News spreads quickly, and both Lawrence Redding and Anne Protheroe confess to the murder. However, both are exonerated; Redding because he insists on an inaccurate time of death, and Anne because Miss Marple clearly saw that she was not carrying a pistol. Other suspects include Archer, a man treated harshly by Protheroe for poaching; Mrs Lestrange, a mysterious woman who recently appeared in the village; Dr Stone, an archaeologist excavating a barrow on Protheroe's land; and Stone's young assistant, Miss Cram.

Miss Marple tells Clement she has a list of seven possible suspects in mind. Miss Marple sees Miss Cram carrying a suitcase into the woods at midnight, which Clement later finds, along with a small crystal of picric acid. The suitcase proves to contain valuable silver belonging to the Protheroes, and "Dr Stone" turns out to be an impostor, having stolen the identity of a real archaeologist and replaced the Protheroes' belongings with replicas.

Reporters descend on the village as other strange occurrences take place. Mrs Price Ridley receives a threatening phone call, and Anne Protheroe discovers a portrait in spare room slashed to pieces with a knife. A police handwriting expert examines the victim's note and determines that Colonel Protheroe did not write it. Clement is inspired to give a far more vigorous sermon than usual, after which he receives a call from Hawes, his sickly curate, who says he has something to confess.

Clement arrives at Hawes's rooms to find him dying from an overdose. He discovers the real note Protheroe was writing when he was killed, which reveals that Hawes was responsible for stealing money from the church accounts. Melchett arrives and calls Dr Haydock, but the operator accidentally connects him to Miss Marple, who arrives to see if she can help.

While Haydock takes Hawes to a hospital, Miss Marple explains her theory about the true murderer. Her seven suspects are revealed to be Archer; Mary, the Clements' maid, who had the opportunity; Lettice Protheroe, the Colonel's daughter, who could not stand him; Dennis, whose alibi about a tennis party failed to hold up; either Hawes or Clement, to prevent the Colonel from investigating the church accounts; or Griselda, who is revealed to have returned on an earlier train the day of the murder. However, none of them are guilty.

Miss Marple believes the true killers to be Lawrence Redding and Anne Protheroe. In love with Anne, Redding decided they could be together only if he removed her husband. On the pretext of seeking advice from Clement, he left his pistol in a potted plant holder at the vicarage. He then planted the picric acid crystal in the woods near the vicarage, rigging it to explode and create a "second gunshot" that would confuse any witnesses. In the evening, Redding placed the false call to Clement to get him out of the house, while Anne walked past Miss Marple's home without a handbag in close-fitting clothing to show that she was not carrying a gun. She retrieved the pistol (which had been fitted with a silencer), killed her husband, and left the vicarage; Redding then entered, stole the note incriminating Hawes, and planted his own note falsifying the time of death.

Both conspirators confessed to the crime with obvious falsehoods in their stories, appearing to exonerate each other. Redding drugged Hawes and planted the Colonel's note to make it appear as though Hawes committed suicide out of guilt. Fortunately, Dr Haydock saves the life of Hawes. Miss Marple proposes a trap which tricks Redding into incriminating himself; he and Anne are arrested by Inspector Slack's men.

The ending wraps up all loose ends. Lettice reveals that Mrs Lestrange is her mother, Colonel Protheroe's first wife, who is terminally ill; Lettice destroyed the portrait of Lestrange in Protheroe's house so the police would not suspect her. The two depart so that Lestrange can spend her last days travelling the world. Miss Cram is revealed to have known nothing about the false Dr Stone's plot, and Griselda and Dennis confess to having threatened Mrs Price Ridley as a practical joke. Griselda reveals that she is pregnant, which Miss Marple deduced.

Alongside the murder mystery plot, the novel takes time to consider alternative perspectives on the idea of crime. Miss Marple's nephew, Raymond West, attempts to solve the crime via Freudian psychoanalysis, while Dr Haydock expresses his view that crime is a disease that will soon be solved by doctors instead of police.

Childhood friends Lonnie, G, and Dominic have a rude awakening when they find out their girlfriends are pregnant. Lonnie and G have sons names Carver and Bruce-Leroy, and Dominic has a daughter named Jasmine.

Each have their own unique set of problems; Lonnie's girlfriend Rolonda is more interested in partying than being a mother; Dominic discovers that his girlfriend Nia is a lesbian and has fallen in love with her midwife; while G, an aspiring boxer, is unable to fully commit to his girlfriend XiXi.

Throughout the movie, all three men, particularly G and Dominic, are determined to continue their normal way of living and be fathers at the same time. Lonnie is a garbage man among other part-time jobs, G works in the store Xixi's family runs, and Dominic is managing a pair of white rappers.

After they momentarily lose their kids during a party they threw, they realize how much their kids depend on them, and gradually become responsible fathers. Lonnie falls in love with a woman from a Mommy and Me class named Brandy who he treats badly on date, due to believing she wouldn't like the real him. Nia reveals to Dominic she's a lesbian and feels he is too involved in his career to ever be a father. G's cousin No Good robs a store to help him get the supplies for his son and Xixi feels he was in on it and takes Bruce-Leroy away from him.

After all three are given a talking to by Lonnie's Uncle Virgil, they realize how much they love their kids and what they have to do. Lonnie apologizes to Brandy, but he stays true to himself, and she forgives him, then he storms to Rolonda's house and takes Carver with him, while criticizing her for having a baby to get child support payments, and knocks out her cousin "Big Swoll". Dominic goes to Nia and tells her how much he loves Jasmine and how he needs to be a part of her life. G's girlfriend's father tells him a story of being in the Triads before he had his daughter and realized how much his family meant to him, leading to G proposing to Xixi.

At the end of the movie it is revealed that Lonnie and Brandy get married. Lonnie has also achieved his dream of becoming a successful inventor; Dominic started a children's music album; and G and his father in law open a martial arts/boxing studio called The Mo Fo Dojo. No Good, after learning of organic foods, goes on to become a successful food show personality called The Organic Gangster. They lastly toast to great babies' daddies. In the end, they realize that three little babies turned them into three grown men.

Billie Jean Davy, a teenager from Corpus Christi, Texas, is riding with her younger brother, Binx, on his Honda Elite Scooter to a local lake to go swimming. Stopping for a milkshake, they have to deal with Hubie Pyatt, a rowdy local teen, and his friends hitting on Billie Jean, but Binx humiliates Hubie by throwing a milkshake in his face. Later on at the lake, as Billie Jean tells Binx about the weather in Vermont, a place he has always wanted to visit, Hubie steals Binx's scooter.

As Binx goes to retrieve his scooter later that night, Billie Jean goes to the authorities with her friends Putter and Ophelia. They report the theft to Detective Ringwald, who is sympathetic but urges them to wait and see how things play out. When Billie Jean returns home, she finds Binx beaten, and his scooter severely damaged. The next day, Billie Jean, Binx, and Ophelia go to Mr. Pyatt's shop to get the amount of $608 to repair the scooter. While initially appearing helpful and understanding, Pyatt propositions Billie Jean and then attempts to rape her.

Meanwhile, Binx has found a gun in the shop's cash register, and when Billie Jean flees from the back of the store, clearly distressed, he turns it on Mr. Pyatt, who tells him the gun is unloaded, but Binx fires it, wounding Pyatt in the shoulder. They race away from the shop and become fugitives.

By the time Ringwald realizes that he made a mistake not listening to Billie Jean, the situation is spinning out of control. Billie Jean wants only the cash to fix her brother's scooter and an apology from Pyatt. With help from Lloyd Muldaur, the teenage son of the district attorney, who voluntarily becomes her "hostage", Billie Jean makes a video of her demands, featuring herself with her long, blonde hair chopped into a crew cut, inspired after watching a movie about Joan of Arc on TV (the 1957 film ''Saint Joan'') and a revolutionary-style wardrobe including combat boots, fatigue pants, and a wetsuit top with the sleeves torn off. As media coverage increases, Billie Jean becomes a teen icon, and young fans follow her every movement. Facing uncertain dangers, both physical and legal, Billie Jean is forced to turn in her friends Putter and Ophelia to the cops for their safety. When Ringwald arrives at the abandoned miniature golf course where the group has taken refuge and demands to know where Billie Jean is, Ophelia defiantly replies, "Everywhere!"

Pyatt issues a bounty for her apprehension, but Ringwald counters with a more peaceful offer and a promise to repair Binx's scooter. Billie Jean realizes the best plan is to turn herself in. During a rally being held, where a brand new scooter is offered for Billie Jean to turn in herself and Lloyd, Binx puts on a dress and pretends to be Billie Jean, walking behind Lloyd. However, Hubie starts yelling that it isn't Billie Jean, and the police shoot Binx.

Billie Jean runs to catch the ambulance taking Binx away but doesn't make it. She suddenly sees a booth with Billie Jean merchandise, run by Mr. Pyatt. Billie Jean confronts Pyatt and gets him to admit the actions that led to him being shot. He gives Billie Jean the money, but she refuses to take it all and rams her knee into his crotch, sending him sprawling to the ground and knocking over a nearby torch. She then tells him to keep his money and to go buy somebody else, throwing the money back in his face. Pyatt gets to his feet as the overturned torch begins to set his merchandise stands on fire. The onlookers (including Hubie), seeing how Billie Jean was exploited and their indirect involvement in it, throw all the Billie Jean merchandise into the rapidly growing fire and leave in disgust. As the merchandise stands burn down, Billie Jean departs as well, but not before thanking Ringwald and giving Lloyd a kiss. Later, Billie Jean and Binx (in an arm sling) are hitchhiking in Vermont. Binx, after complaining about the cold, admires a red snowmobile.

In "Father's Last Escape," the concluding story of the novel, Schulz makes an explicit reference to Franz Kafka's ''The Metamorphosis'' (Schulz helped his one-time fiancee translate Kafka's ''The Trial'' into Polish, a translation for which Schulz provided an introduction). The old man's business has been liquidated and all his functions and authorities taken over by his wife or relatives. Even the pretty, young Polish maid Adela has gone and been replaced by Genya, "anemic, pale, and boneless,…and so absent-minded that she sometimes made a white sauce from old letters and invoices." Father's response is to turn himself first into wallpaper, then a piece of clothing, and finally into a big crablike insect who — unlike Kafka's passive victim — runs around the house, searching endlessly for something. His wife can catch the creature in her handkerchief sometimes, but cannot hold him. One day, however, she must have managed because Father appears at lunch, as the main course, after which he escapes the table, never to be seen again.

Bob McGraw, Max, Gonzer, and Irwin, students at Lepetomane University (known derisively by some as "Lobotomy U"), are volunteered to compete in a collegiate raft race. They are "recruited" by Dean Burch who uses records of McGraw's checkered past as a means of blackmail to get them to compete. He offers them degrees in the major of their choice as additional incentive. "You have the distinct honor of being the four worst students in the entire country.", says Birch, "You're not AT the bottom of the list, you ARE the bottom of the list!" Their opponents include Ivy University, prep schoolers who, with the help of an Ivy alumnus named Dr. Roland Tozer, plan to cheat their way to the Winner's Circle. Their adversaries also include the Washington Military Institute, who are soon disqualified for their attempts to sabotage the other schools' rafts. Captain Braverman, the leader of the Military men, seeks revenge on McGraw for hindering their attempts to sabotage the other rafts. Also entered is a team of attractive female students, one of whom ends up in a romantic situation with McGraw.

Due to its lineage, Hypernauts featured relatively detailed designs of its technology and its aliens, as well as a fairly intricate plot; especially for a Saturday morning children's series. The premise of the series was that three cadets from the Academy of Galactic Exploration become lost in a Hyper Bubble (hyperspace) mid-jump and must band together with an alien named Kulai in order to survive in an unfamiliar part of the galaxy. Kulai (unbeknownst to the cadets) is a Chalim priestess from a planet called Pyria, a planet that was strip-mined by a warlike race called the Triiad, led by the Pyran traitor, Paiyin. The sole purpose of the Triiad is to wipe out intelligent races, and in the process acquire raw materials from their destroyed planets to continually create new war machines using automated self-replicating factory ships called "Makers."

The Hypernauts, as they are called in the academy, cannot match the Triiad's firepower with their own so they must rely on stealth, wits and (occasionally) their modified 'mech suits' in order to escape the Triiad. They are based in an ancient abandoned exploration ship called the Star Ranger which is hidden in an asteroid field, the Star Ranger's obsolete AI is named Horten. For long range missions they use a four-person "jump" ship called the Flapjack which is ''Hyper Bubble'' capable but has a short range unlike a full-fledged exploration ship. They use the "StarRanger" as a mother ship (with fusion engines) and with its vast database of explored nearby planets, they continue exploring (as they are trained to).

After learning of the Hypernauts (from their first encounter with Paiyin), the Triiad have activated and englobed the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy in a sensor net called "The Sphere of Interception," which can identify any end-to-end destination point for any hyperspace jump passing in and out of it (which includes any form of communication) so returning/calling home would lead the Triiad directly to Earth. The Hypernauts must keep the location of Earth a secret and somehow try to warn Earth of the Triiad's existence.

The film tells the story of a family in crisis. The mother, Leona (Quinlan), escapes to Jamaica to grieve the loss of her baby daughter, Edith, who died of sudden infant death syndrome. While there she meets kindly housekeeper Clara Mayfield (Goldberg). Clara pulls Leona out of her depression with a blunt, no-nonsense style. Leona is so taken with her that she brings Clara back to their home in Baltimore to be housekeeper and nanny to young son David (Harris). At first he is resistant and sees her as an intruder, but as the parents are completely wrapped up in their own grief and dissolving marriage, David comes to trust Clara and to depend on her. Clara harbors her own dark secret, which when revealed, serves to firm the bond between these two very different, but loving, characters.

Tatsuru and Shinichirō are two young male hustlers in Japan. The older one, Tatsuru, disconnects himself from his emotions in order to perform his job. The younger Shinichirō, meanwhile, grows uncomfortable with the work once he has fallen in love with Tatsuru. After Shinichirō gets thrown out of his parents' house, he stays at Tatsuru's apartment, and their once casual relationship awkwardly develops into something else.